The Egyptian-American man holding 11 people, including four 'foreigners', hostage on a passenger jet after hijacking the plane with a suicide vest, has been branded an 'idiot' by his foreign ministry.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the four passengers to be two British citizens, one Italian and one Irish man, being held alongside the flight crew.
The hijacker, identified as university professor Ibrahim Samaha, 27, has asked negotiators at Larnaca airport for political asylum - and demanded to see his Cypriot ex-wife.
A picture from the tarmac shows the moment Samaha hands over a four-page letter intended for his ex-wife, as a female official stands with her head in her hands.
Airport officials are onboard the plane and have yet to find any explosives, as Samaha's ex-wife is said to be making her way to Larnaca to help with negotiations.
Egypt's civil aviation minister says seven people remain with the hijacker on the EgyptAir plane that has landed in Cyprus, four crew and three passengers.
The minister, Sharif Fathi, would not disclose any names but there has been confusion over the identity of the hijacker. He spoke to the media in Cairo shortly after the hijacking.
An Egyptian woman has said she is the wife of Ibrahim Samaha - the name given earlier by Egyptian officials as the hijacker. She says her husband, with the same name, is not the hijacker and that he was on his way to Cairo en route to the United States to attend a conference.
The woman, who identified herself as Nahla, told the private TV network ONTV in a telephone interview that her husband had never been to Cyprus and that a photo shown on Egyptian and regional TV channels and purporting to show the hijacker is not her husband.
The confusion over the identity of the hijacker could not immediately be resolved.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: 'He's not a terrorist, he's an idiot. Terrorists are crazy but they aren't stupid. This guy is,' according to Cairo-based journalist Ruth Michaelson.
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