(CNN) An Air Transat flight was forced to divert Saturday morning to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after reports of a possible fire in the cargo hold, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Passengers on board the Boeing 737 -- which flew out of Montreal and was bound for Fort Lauderdale, Florida -- evacuated onto the airport's runway via emergency slides, according to FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. Airport firefighters responded to the scene.

The incident prompted the Newark airport to shut down all runways briefly, according to its Twitter page, but flights resumed soon after

In air traffic control audio posted to the streaming site liveatc.net, the pilots of Air Transat Flight 942 can be heard telling air traffic controllers they had received a fire warning. But the pilots said they were unsure if there was actually a fire onboard, or if it was just a warning.

Emergency at Newark Airport.



Nothing arriving or going pic.twitter.com/YZBsg7QplN — R.J.C (@RJCRampAgent) March 9, 2019

Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told CNN that the pilot of the Air Transat flight requested an emergency landing at 8:20 a.m., saying there was smoke in the aircraft.

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