An Air Canada Boeing 777 passenger jet suffered an "engine shutdown" after taking off in Toronto on Monday afternoon, which forced the plane to dump its fuel and make an emergency landing.

The Japan-bound Flight 001 took off from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport at 2:10 p.m. ET and returned to make its emergency landing at 3:53 p.m. ET.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick told CBC News that the plane had an "engine shutdown" that occurred shortly after takeoff.

Passengers who returned to Toronto on Air Canada Flight 001 are seen lining up for food and hotel vouchers at Pearson International Airport on Monday. (Ivy Cuervo/CBC)

The crew then followed "standard procedures for dealing with the situation," which saw them request an emergency landing.

Fitzpatrick said the plane had 318 passengers and 16 crew on board when it landed on Runway 23.

Do you have information about the emergency landing at Pearson on Monday afternoon? Were you on the flight? We'd like to hear from you at tonews@cbc.ca

"The aircraft landed normally and it has just taxied to the gate and we’ll be looking into it to see what exactly happened," he said.

The passengers who were on the jet will be staying the night in Toronto, before boarding a new flight that will depart Tuesday morning.

Police probe reports of falling debris

Peel Regional Police received reports on Monday afternoon that debris had fallen from the plane and later identified at least four vehicles that had been hit by pieces of metal about the size of a cellphone.

A car parked outside a Petro-Canada gas station in Brampton, Ont., was believed to be among those that may have been damaged by falling debris. (Ivy Cuervo/CBC)

But they could not confirm that the metal came from the plane.

"We believe it is, but it's not up to us — we're not the investigating body," Const. George Tudos told The Canadian Press.

"As it [the plane] was travelling away from Pearson we had other complaints stating that debris, consisting of metal objects, was falling from the sky," Tudos said.

The CBC’s Ivy Cuervo reported that some callers told police they had seen "chunks of metal falling from the sky," which prompted them to investigate reports that some cars had been damaged by debris.

A car parked outside a Petro-Canada in Brampton was among the vehicles that were possibly damaged by falling debris.