US passenger plane makes emergency landing in Tehran

A US passenger plane with 255 aboard made an emergency landing in Tehran early Sunday duo to technical problems in its cargo section, the state television reported.

The Northwest Airlines DC 10 flying from Bombay, India, to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, had been hit by technical problems with the cargo bay, the report said.

There was no report of injuries upon the landing, and the flight was expected to take off soon, the report added.

The emergency landing took place just one day after the ninth Iranian presidential election was announced to head for a run-off vote on June 24. Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and conservative Tehran Mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad will stand in the final race.

Iran and the United States have traded hostility for more than 26 year since the outbreak of Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, when 52 people in then US Embassy in Tehran were taken hostage for 444 days.

The two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1980 and have been slamming each other since then.

Washington accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons and sponsoring terrorists, labeling Tehran as past of "axis of evils."

Iran, in return, accuses the United States of seeking to control and exploit the Middle East, terming it as enemy of the Islamic world.

Source: Xinhua