TWO Libyans who hijacked an airliner from Libya to Malta yesterday, threatening to blow it up, surrendered after hours of tense negotiations, allowing 118 passengers and crew to leave the plane.

The hijacked flight, operated by Afriqiyah Airways, was en route from the Libyan oasis city of Sabha to Tripoli when it was diverted to Malta in mid morning.

Maltese television said the two hijackers carried hand grenades and had threatened to explode them. All flights to Malta International Airport were immediately diverted and emergency teams dispatched to the airport.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced the end of the hijacking at 3.45pm local time, saying the pair had “surrendered” and were “searched and taken in custody.”

After negotiations, the hijackers allowed the plane’s doors to open at 1.45pm and a staircase was moved into place to let freed passengers leave in groups.

In a series of tweets, Mr Muscat said 65 people had been allowed to leave, then another 44, including some crew, then the hijackers and the final crew members.

Pilot Ali Milad told Libyan television that the hijackers had initially asked him to head to Rome.

He identified them as Moussa Shaha and Ahmed Ali, Libyans who other officials said were in their twenties.

The pilot said the men were seeking political asylum in Europe and wanted to set up a political party called “the New Fateh.”

Fateh is a reference to former Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi, who led the Fateh revolution after his coup against King Idris in 1969.

After many of the hostages left the plane on Friday afternoon, someone, apparently a hijacker, waved the green former Libyan flag from the plane’s doorway.

Since an armed uprising in 2011, backed by extensive Nato bombing and special forces operations, Libya has been split between two rival parliaments and governments and innumerable armed militias of varying degrees of brutality.