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Malaysia Airlines plane disappearance probably not terrorism, Interpol

The disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane with 239 people on board was probably not a "terrorist incident", the head of Interpol said on Tuesday.

The two men whom police said were travelling on stolen passports onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane
The two men whom police said were travelling on stolen passports onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane Reuters/Malaysian Police/Handout via Reuters
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"The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it was not a terrorist incident," Ronald K Noble said at Interpol's headquaters in the french city of Lyon.

Malaysian police opened a terror probe at the weekend as the fate of the plane, which had four French citizens among its 227 passengers, remained a mystery.

One of the two passengers travelling on stolen passports has turned out to be a 19-year-old Iranian illegal immigrant, Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad.

"If you read what the head of police of Malaysia said recently about the 19-year-old ... wanting to travel to Frankfurt, Germany in order to be with his mother, it is part of a human smuggling issue and not a part of a terrorist issue," Noble said.

The plane was travelling to Beijing, from whre the Iranian is believed to have been heading to Frankfurt.

The final destination for the other ticket was Copenhagen.

Authorities have doubled their search radius around the point where the plane disappeared from radar over the South China Sea early Saturday.

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