An Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris was forced to make an emergency landing in Kenya after a suspicious package was found on board, Kenyan police said.

Flight AF 463, which had 459 passengers and 14 crew members on board, had left Mauritius at 9pm local time (2230 IST) and was due to arrive in Paris Charles de Gaulle at 5:50am (1020 IST).

It landed at Moi Airport, Mombasa, before 1am local time last night.

"It requested an emergency landing after a device suspected to be a bomb was discovered in the lavatory, an emergency was prepared and it landed safely and all passengers evacuated," police spokesman Charles Owino said.

"Bomb experts from the Navy and the CID were called in and took the device which they are dismantling to establish if it had any explosives," he said.

The plane was still in Mombasa airport in the early morning, he added.