HEFEI - A man was detained in East China's Anhui province after his fake bomb threat forced a domestic flight carrying 160 passengers to make an emergency landing early Thursday morning.

Hefei Luogang International Airport police arrested the 31-year-old man surnamed Chen, a native of Bengbu, Anhui province, for fabricating and spreading false terrorist information.

He called the airport and claimed there were explosives on flight ZH9786 bound for Shenzhen, southern Guangdong province, shortly after the flight took off around midnight on Wednesday.

He intended to stop his girlfriend who was on the flight from leaving Hefei, provincial capital of Anhui, according to police investigations.

The plane landed at Nanchang Changbei International Airport, located in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, at 0:51 am Thursday. A thorough examination of the aircraft did not find any explosives.

The plane departed from Nanchang at 11:45 am.

In December, a man who called in a false bomb threat on a passenger flight to avoid a debt collector was sentenced to four years in prison in Central China's Hubei province.

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