All passengers from a hijacked Canadian plane in Jamaica have been released unharmed, but the crew are still being held, the CanJet airline said on Monday.

"Flight 918 was carrying 182 passengers and crew. All passengers have been safely removed from the aircraft, but CanJet crew and the armed man remain on board," the Canadian airline said in a statement posted on its website.

"Our understanding is that no harm has come to anyone remaining on board," it said.

A security operation is underway and the airline is "cooperating fully with the local authorities," it added.

Passengers were reportedly taken hostage when they were boarding a CanJet flight from Scangster International Airport in Montego Bay to Canada late Sunday when the security breach occurred, said an earlier report by CNN.

A shot had been fired, but no one was hit, CNN quoted Radio Jamaica as saying.

Police and security personnel were handling the incident, the report said, adding that negotiations were underway.

A passenger, Brenda Grenier, called her husband and said a man apparently had sneaked aboard the plane and had taken hostages, according to CNN.

Grenier and her daughter were safe, her husband told reporters by phone from his home in Nova Scotia, Canada.  

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2009)