January 24, 2003	Friday	Ziqa’ad 20, 1423

SHANGHAI, Jan 23: Two men described as Europeans fell to their deaths from an Air France plane just before it landed in Shanghai on Thursday, police, state media and sources said.

An initial investigation showed the two fell from the undercarriage area that held the landing gear on flight AF112 from Paris to Shanghai as the plane was about to land at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, an official at the airport’s police command center said.

“One of them fell on top of a house and the other fell in a field,” said the official who declined to be named.

The official Xinhua news agency had previously reported the pair crawled from the plane’s luggage compartment to the area that holds the landing gear.

The unidentified pair fell in Laoxiang town in Shanghai’s Nanhui district, not far from the airport where the plane was due to land, the report said.

“We don’t know anything at the moment. The investigators are still out at the scene, but we are not suspecting terrorism,” said another police officer who declined to be identified.

He said there was no evidence the pair tried to carry out terrorist attacks, such as starting a fire in the luggage compartment.

Shanghai police started an investigation soon after the plane landed at the the airport one hour later than its scheduled arrival, Xinhua said.

Police have still not identified the two foreigners.

A source in Shanghai close to the investigations however told AFP the two men were Europeans.

He said the plane, an Airbus, had originated from Los Angeles and flew to Paris before making a separate flight from Paris to Shanghai.

The other passengers left the plane safely and the aircraft will remain at the airport as the investigation continues.

An Air France spokeswoman in Beijing said the airline’s top manager in China was heading from Beijing to Shanghai to deal with the matter, but that the airline had little immediate information.

“We’re not aware of the reasons. They found two bodies but we don’t know if they fell from our plane. We don’t know if they’re French nationals,” said the spokeswoman Zhou Yinghui.

A website said airport officials believe the two people were illegal immigrants.—AFP