Spain ? An armed man who hijacked a Mauritanian plane to Spain’s Canary Islands on Thursday was overpowered by passengers and crew before he was arrested by police who boarded the plane shortly after landing, government and airline officials said.

The man was overwhelmed by passengers and arrested when police stormed the Air Mauritania 737 shortly after the aircraft landed at Gando military base on Gran Canaria island, Spanish Interior Ministry official Carolina Darias said.

Air Mauritania director Mohamed Ould Aoufa said the crew was involved in overpowering the hijacker.

Twenty-one of the 71 passengers – mostly Spaniards and Mauritanians – were treated for slight injuries, a Las Palmas police spokesman said. The most seriously affected was a pregnant woman who was treated for severe shock.

Police said the man had been carrying two loaded handguns.

Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh, Mauritania’s top police official, said the hijacker was a Moroccan who wanted to immigrate to France.