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Six passengers were being questioned by police today after a fake bomb was found in the toilet of an Air France passenger jet.

The plane, which was en route to Paris from Mauritius, made an emergency landing in Kenya after the suspect package was found.

The Air France plane was carrying 459 passengers and 14 crew members at the time and diverted to Mombasa.

It was initially feared the device was a real bomb but the CEO of Air France later confirmed it was a fake bomb.

Chief Executive Frederic Gagey told a news conference a passenger found the object in the toilets.

He said those on board were then evacuated via the emergency slides.

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(Image: REUTERS)

"All the information available to us at the moment indicates that the object was not capable of creating an explosion or damaging a plane, but was rather a mixture of cardboard, sheets of paper and a timer," Gagey said. "It was a false alarm."

The suspected device was removed from the plane and investigated by experts.

The airport was completely closed while the operation was carried out.

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Speaking earlier, Police Inspector General Joseph Boinnet said on his Twitter account that the Boeing 777 aircraft with 459 passengers and 14 crew was safely evacuated after it landed at Moi International Airport at 12:37 a.m. on Sunday local time.

"Bomb experts from the Navy and DCI (Directorate of Criminal Investigations) have retrieved the device and are determining whether the components contained explosives," Boinnet said.

(Image: Twitter/Inooroke)

On October 31, all 224 people on board a Russian plane were killed after it was downed by a bomb on board.

Islamic extremists ISIS bragged about being responsible for the bombing and even shared a picture of what they claimed was the bomb.

Many Brits were left stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh after flights back home were cancelled following the October 31 crash.