Turkey ? Two men hijacked a Turkish passenger plane bound for Istanbul on Saturday, holding several people hostage for more than four hours before surrendering, officials said.

Six crew members and 136 passengers were onboard the Atlasjet flight from Ercan airport in northern Cyprus when the men, claiming to have a bomb, demanded that the plane be diverted to Iran, authorities said.

Pilots managed to land the plane at Antalya airport in southwest Turkey, and most of the passengers escaped safely when the hijackers released the women and children on board, officials said.

Their motives for hijacking the plane were not immediately clear. Gunes said the hijackers, identified as Mehmet Resat Ozlu and Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, told an official they “apologized to the Turkish nation” for seizing the plane.