QUETTA, Oct 6: Passengers were offloaded from a Lahore-bound flight and a state of emergency was declared at the Quetta airport on Monday after PIA authorities received a call about a bomb placed in the plane.

The airport was closed and Airport Security Force personnel cordoned off the entire area.A senior airport official told Dawn that the PIA call centre received the bomb threat when the passengers had boarded on the plane and the fight PK-322 was about to take off for Lahore.

The passengers were immediately offloaded and taken to a lounge.

Police, Bomb Disposal Squad and ASP personnel conducted a through search of the plane, passengers and their luggage.

Police Inspector Riaz Ahmed said that no bomb was found on the plane and threat was declared as hoax.

The flight was allowed to leave at 3:15pm after a delay of over three hours.