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Turkish jet hijacker gives himself up in Ankara

ANKARA, April 10, 2007 (AFP) - A man hijacked a Turkish airliner carrying 180 passengers and crew on Tuesday but gave himself up to authorities after it landed in Ankara, television channels reported.

"The hijacker, of Turkish nationality, has given himself up to police and been taken into custody," transport ministry spokesman Ibrahim Sahin told journalists at Ankara.

The hijacker, Mehmet Goksin Gol, 39, was unarmed and had a police record for trafficking in drugs and possessing illegal weapons, media reports said.

Gol hijacked a Boeing 737-800 run by the private Turkish airline Pegasus flying from Diyarbakir, a Kurdish-majority city in south-eastern Anatolia, to Istanbul.

The plane, carrying 174 passengers, including three babies, and six crew took off from Diyarbakir at 5:40 pm (1440 GMT).

Sahin said Gol was unarmed and added that his demands were not clear.

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim meanwhile told CNN that the hijacker did not appear to have any political motives.

"A normal man does not do such a thing," he said.

The passengers would be continuing their journey on another plane, said Sahin.

One passenger told CNN-Turk television that the hijacker had said he had a bomb attached to his belt and that at one point he had read verses from the Koran.

"He didn't seem to be in full possession of his mental faculties," the passenger added.

Earlier television news reports had said the man had wanted the plane to go to Iran.