An Air France flight from Mauritius diverted and made an emergency landing at Kenya’s port city of Mombasa after a suspicious device was found in a toilet.

Air France chief executive Frederic Gagey said Sunday that a bomb threat that prompted one of the airline’s planes to make an emergency landing in Kenya had been a “false alarm”.

“The object was not capable of causing an explosion,” Gagey said of an item made up of cardboard, pieces of paper and a timer that was found in a toilet cubicle on board the plane flying from Mauritius to Paris.

Air France said in a statement earlier that as a precaution, all passengers were evacuated from the aircraft by its emergency slides.

“They are [being] taken care of by Mombasa’s airport ground staff and will be accommodated. An investigation is being led by the authorities to identify the source of the threat,” it said.

The airline said it was working to re-route is passengers and was sending another plane to Mombasa to fly them to Paris.

“This Mombasa – Paris flight is scheduled to leave in the late afternoon of Sunday, December 20,” it said.

Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said on its Twitter account that flights from Mombasa airport were disrupted due to the emergency landing.

Related articles across the web

• Air France to add new Glasgow-Paris service
• Air France announces new Glasgow-Paris route
• Ari Gesher and Kipp Bradford on security and the Internet of Things
• Go around on BA995 at LHR this evening
• Turkish Airlines flight to New York City diverted to Canada after bomb threat
• European Court annuls price-fixing case against Air Canada, other carriers
• Amsterdam-bound flight canceled in Houston after disturbance
• Air France Lounge Review: JFK Terminal 1
• Boeing, Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance Extend, Expand 737 Component Services Partnership
• CityJet seals new $210m jet options to expand