A Milan-bound Germanwings flight was stopped on the runway on Sunday evening following a bomb threat against the aircraft as it awaited takeoff at Cologne Bonn airport.

Air traffic controllers contacted the pilot of flight 4U826 to Milan’s Malpensa airport, after German police received a bomb threat.

“The tower contacted the pilot immediately who then aborted taxiing and directed the aircraft to a position provided for in such cases,” Germanwings said in a statement. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the plane, which had been scheduled to take off at 6.20pm.

The aircraft was then examined by the authorities and specially trained dogs, Germanwings said. The airline has not released details of those on board the A320 aircraft, which Italian media said had been carrying 126 passengers.

With the flight cancelled, the carrier said it was currently working to help passengers reach Milan: “Germanwings is making every effort to arrange alternative transportation for passengers to continue their onward journey. The airline regrets any inconvenience caused.”

Cologne Bonn airport’s departures board on Sunday evening showed the flight as being scheduled to depart at 9:30pm. Around 9.45 million passengers travel each year through the airport in western Germany, which is also the country’s third-largest airport for air cargo.

The bomb threat comes less than three weeks after a Germanwings flight crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Investigators have since said that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, deliberately drove flight 4U9525 into the French mountains.

The crash was the worst such disaster in mainland France for decades and prompted airlines within Europe and elsewhere to change their rules regarding cockpit access. Germanwings’ parent company, Lufthansa, has also been criticised after it was revealed that Lubitz had informed the airline that he had suffered from severe depression.