August 18, 2007 - Two hijackers said to be al-Qaeda members forced a Turkish passenger plane to land in the southern Turkish city of Antalya early today.

Most of the passengers were able to escape after the plane landed, leaving only the hijackers and a few passengers and crew still on board, officials said.

The men, who said they were protesting against the United States, reportedly wanted to hijack the plane to Iran or Syria.

The plane operated by the private Turkish airline company, was flying from northern Cyprus to Istanbul with 136 passengers and six crew when it was commandeered, company manager Tuncay Doganer said.

The hijackers wanted to take the plane to Iran, but the pilots said they needed to refuel and the plane made an emergency landing in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, he said.

Turkish authorities struck an agreement with the hijackers to release women and children on board through the front of the plane, but while they were being let out, most of the remaining passengers managed to break down the back door of the aircraft and jump out, as per the age.com.au.

The plane's two pilots also jumped out of the cockpit, Aydin Kizilhan, the manager of the company which leased the plane to Atlas Jet, told the CNN-Turk news channel.

The passengers said the hijackers appeared to be aged between 25 and 3O and spoke in Arabic and some English.

"They said they were from al-Qaeda. They tried to break the cabin door," Erhan Erkul, one of the passengers who fled, told the NTV channel.

"After we landed, we managed to force open the back door and jumped out. The hijackers could not intervene, they were in the front of the plane," he said.

Another passenger who managed to flee said the two men said they had a bomb and wanted to go to Syria.

"They spoke in Arabic, sometimes they spoke in English. One of them spoke a little Turkish," said the woman, who was not identified.

Another passenger, Hakki Dogusoy, said the hijackers had said they would not harm the passengers.

"They said 'We are Muslims. You are Muslims too. We will not do you any harm"' Dogusoy, said.

One of the passengers still aboard the aircraft, identified only by his first name Mahmut, told the CNN-Turk news channel "They said they wanted to protest against the United States".

"They are not aggressive, They say they only want to make their voice heard," he added.

Doganer said police had already identified the hijackers, but refused to give details

Authorities were trying to negotiate the release of the remaining passengers and crew, CNN-Turk said.

There were conflicting figures on how many crew and passengers were left inside.

Doganer said only a "small number of people" were inside the plane, while the Anatolia news agency quoted officials as saying nine passengers and two crew members were aboard the aircraft.