An Australian man of Hong Kong origin has been detained by Chinese police under suspicion of making a bomb threat on Monday which forced a passenger airliner from China to Australia to return to Guangzhou and make an emergency landing.

No bomb was detected and the flight eventually landed in Sydney, a local government official said on Wednesday.

The suspect, whose Chinese name is Wong Chung-wah, is a cosmetics businessman in his thirties. A passenger reported the discovery of a note warning a bomb would explode on the China Southern Airlines flight from Guangzhou to Sydney, said an official with the public security bureau of the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, southern Guangdong Province, who declined to give his name.

Police confirmed Wong wrote the note after verifying his handwriting, said the unidentified official.

Wong told police he was lovesick and he made the threat to release his depression, said the official.

The warning note was found in a lavatory on the Airbus A330 Flight CZ325 more than 40 minutes after the aircraft took off from the Baiyun airport at 21:30 on Monday.

The pilot took emergency action and returned to Guangzhou at 23:15 on Monday, where more than 200 passengers were evacuated from the plane and police searched through the aircraft, said the official.

The plan restarted its journey at 4:50 a.m. on Tuesday after it was confirmed that there was no bomb was on the plane.

Further investigations into the case are underway.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)