Bomber's 'initial target was Turkish Airlines'

A man suspected of detonating a bomb on a passenger plane in Somalia had initially intended to board a Turkish Airlines flight, the company's chief executive has said, AFP news agency reports. 

The blast ripped a hole in the fuselage of the Daallo Airlines plane shortly after it took off from Somalia's main airport on Tuesday, killing the suspected bomber and forcing an emergency landing. 

"The passengers were intended for another airline, Turkish Airlines," Daallo Airlines chief executive officer Mohamed Ibrahim Yasin Olad told AFP. 

But the Turkish plane did not turn up and Daallo Airlines agreed to fly the passengers to Djibouti in the Airbus A321, he is quoted as saying.

A passenger believed to be the bomber, identified as Abdulahi Abdisalam, was killed, probably after being propelled out of the aircraft in the explosion, investigators said, AFP reports.

The plane made an emergency landing at the airport in Mogadishu