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Photo for illustrative purposes Image Credit: Pixabay

Nouakchott: An intruder tried to seize a plane at the airport in Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott, on Thursday before being arrested, the country's official press agency and a security source said.

The AMI press agency reported that the man was an "American claiming to have problems with the Mauritanian gov-ernment".

A security source said that the individual "sneaked aboard a Mauritanian plane" that had "no passengers aboard."

He then threatened to blow up the craft, a Mauritania Airlines Embraer used for domestic flights, the source said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not give details of the man's identity or nationality and could not say whether he really had any explosives.

"He's been neutralised. Gendarmes managed to overpower him after he refused to give himself up," the source told AFP.

AMI also reported that the man had been arrested.