BEIJING: North Korean Air Koryo airplane made an emergency landing in China’s city of Shenyang due to a fire, China’s official Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

The plane from North Korea’s national airline, which was flying from Pyongyang to Beijing, made a forced landing in the northeastern Chinese city after it caught fire, Xinhua said, citing a passenger.

Smoke appeared in the cabin about 30 minutes after takeoff and passengers were told by the flight crew not to panic as the plane landed, Xinhua cited the person as saying.

“Later, oxygen masks dropped and several passengers began to have breathing difficulty because of the oxygen shortage in the cabin,” Xinhua said.

The plane landed in Shenyang 10 minutes later and no one on board was injured, Xinhua said, but it did not give further details about what caused the fire.

Flight JS-151 had made a safe emergency landing after smoke appeared in the cabin, but “nothing abnormal” had been found with the aircraft, Shenyang airport said in a short statement on its microblog.—Reuters