The Pegasus Airlines plane from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov on the tarmac of Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport, February 7, 2014. 
 
 ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish security forces on Friday seized a Ukrainian man who officials said made a bomb threat and tried to hijack a passenger plane, demanding to go to the Winter Olympics venue of Sochi just as the opening ceremony was taking place. 
 
 Turkey scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to accompany the Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane as it landed at Sabiha Gokcen airport at 6.05 p.m. (1605 GMT), after a flight from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov with 110 passengers on board. 
 
 The incident came at a time when security officials internationally are on high alert for possible militant attacks connected to the Games. 
 
 The suspect, a 45-year-old man, had a small bag containing electronic goods but no bomb, Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told reporters after the operation to capture him. 
 
 "None of the passengers were harmed and a successful operation was carried out," Mutlu said. 
 
 He said some force had to be used to seize the suspect. 
 
 "He was captured as a result of a struggle without the need to use any weapons. The hijacker was slightly wounded," he said. 
 
 There was no evidence of the suspect being linked to any organisation but investigations would be conducted, he said. 
 
 The governor had arrived at the airport earlier in the evening to take charge of a crisis centre to handle the incident. Ambulances and fire engines were sent to the scene. 
 
 A Transport Ministry official said all passengers were evacuated from the plane before the operation, which took place shortly before 10 p.m. (2000 GMT). 
 
 A photograph displayed by the broadcaster NTV showed a man wearing a red, white and blue sports top, believed to be the suspect, standing up from his seat near the front of the plane as a steward looked on. 
 
 Video footage also showed passengers sitting calmly on the aircraft before the operation was carried out. 
 
 Media reports had said the suspect was believed to have drunk alcohol, but the governor could not confirm those reports. 
 
 Several U.S. and European security officials have said that last-minute intelligence reports about possible Olympics-related attacks continue to flow into Western agencies. 
 
 President Vladimir Putin has staked his political and personal prestige on the Sochi Games, intended to show how far Russia has come since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. A bombing, hijacking or hostage crisis would seriously threaten those ambitions. 
 
 (Reporting by Orhan Coskun and Evrim Ergin; Writing by Daren Butler and Nick Tattersall; Editing by Dasha Afanasieva and Sonya Hepinstall) ||||| Story highlights Ukraine says the suspect turned himself in; a Turkish governor says otherwise 
 
 "We were trying to persuade him and he wasn't persuaded," governor says 
 
 Passenger says there's a bomb in the plane's baggage hold, says it should fly to Sochi 
 
 F-16 jets escort the plane to Istanbul, where it lands safely; authorities detain the suspect 
 
 A passenger announced Friday "that there was a bomb on board" his plane and wanted it diverted to Sochi -- the Russian city hosting the Winter Olympics amid terrorism fears -- Turkish officials said. 
 
 Rather than abide by the request, the Pegasus Airlines' crew sent a hijacking alert that Turkey's Air Force Control Center received at 5:20 p.m. (10:20 a.m. ET), Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported. 
 
 About 20 minutes later, the same report claimed two F-16 fighter jets scrambled to intercept the Boeing 737-800 and escort it over the Black Sea. 
 
 Eventually, the airliner landed safely at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport, where video shot soon thereafter showed police and security officials converging on it. 
 
 Istanbul's governor tweeted around 10 p.m. that "the air pirate has been neutralized" and all other passengers "disembarked from the plane without any problems." Special forces who boarded the plane took him into custody "in a swift operation" without finding a "bomb on him," Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu later told reporters. 
 
 "The operation is complete," the governor said. 
 
 Mutlu said that the suspect -- who never made it into the cockpit and at one point apparently thought the aircraft was destined for Sochi -- "didn't seem to have consumed alcohol, (but) he may have used some other substances." He'd brought a carry-on bag with personal electronics and other items onto the Pegasus plane, according to the governor. 
 
 The incident came at a tense time given the various threats surrounding the Winter Games, which kicked off in earnest Friday night with its opening ceremony. 
 
 Russian security forces have cracked down in recent weeks on suspected militants in the restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan -- which is located on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains from Sochi -- and elsewhere in recent weeks after twin suicide bombings in the city of Volgograd in December. 
 
 There have also been concerns specifically about explosives-laden airlines. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul said Wednesday night that the his nation's Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to airlines flying into Russia warning that explosive materials could be concealed in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes. 
 
 Airlines warned of possible toothpaste tube bombs 
 
 Official: Suspect is Ukrainian 
 
 The flight started in Kharkov in Ukraine, and was headed to Istanbul, according to the Transportation Ministry. 
 
 While it was in air, "one of the passengers said that there was a bomb on board and asked the plane to not land in Sabiha Gokcen but rather to land in Sochi," Transportation Ministry official Habip Soluk said on CNNTurk. 
 
 The man said the bomb was in the baggage hold, a Transportation Ministry official said. 
 
 The aircraft ended up touching down at the Turkish airport at at 6:04 p.m., according to Anadolu, at which point it was moved to a safe zone on the tarmac. 
 
 Cihan News Agency of Turkey published a photograph it claimed came from inside the plane showing a man standing in a number 11 sports jersey with empty seats around him and two people in uniform. 
 
 Turkish officials have not confirmed that this photograph is from inside the Pegasus airliner or that the man at the center of it is the alleged hijacker. 
 
 The Ukrainian foreign ministry issued a statement identifying the suspect as one of its citizens, something that Soluk also said was the case. The Ukrainian ministry said no explosives or guns were found aboard the plane and that the suspect "voluntarily turned himself into police." 
 
 Mutlu, Istanbul's governor, offered a different take on how the alleged hijacker was detained. 
 
 "We had to use force because we were trying to persuade him and he wasn't persuaded," said Mutlu, adding Turkish authorities did not use guns and that the suspect suffered "a light injury." 
 
 The suspect never said anything about Circassians -- the residents in the volatile region around the North Caucasus mountains -- or having lived in the region, according to the governor. ||||| ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Ukrainian passenger on an Istanbul-bound flight Friday claimed there was a bomb on board and tried to hijack the plane to Sochi, Russia, where the Olympics are kicking off, an official said. 
 
 The plane from Kharkiv, Ukraine, landed safely at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport, but 110 passengers are still on board and authorities are trying to convince the alleged hijacker to give himself up, Habib Soluk, the country's Transport Ministry undersecretary, told NTV television. 
 
 The station reported the man had been subdued, but there was no immediate confirmation of that. The Interfax news agency cited the Ukrainian Security Service, the country's main security agency, as saying the passenger who tried to hijack the plane was in a state of severe alcohol intoxication. It also said he has been pacified, and no weapons or explosives were found on him, but it was not clear where the information was coming from. 
 
 Soluk said the man rose from his seat, shouted that there was bomb on board and tried to enter the locked cockpit. The pilot signaled that there was a hijack attempt and the airport was placed on high alert. 
 
 "The man was made to believe the plane was heading to Sochi," he said. "We are hoping that the passengers are evacuated without even a nose-bleed." 
 
 Pegasus Airlines confirmed in a brief statement there was a "bomb threat" aboard their flight from Kharkiv. 
 
 The plane's captain, Ilyas Karagulle, signaled that the crew was well, according to state-run TRT television. 
 
 With about 100,000 police, security agents and army troops flooding Sochi, Russia has pledged to ensure "the safest Olympics in history." But terror fears fueled by recent suicide bombings have left athletes, spectators and officials worldwide jittery about potential threats. 
 
 Security experts warn that Islamic militants in the Caucasus, who have threatened to derail the Winter Games that run from Feb. 7-23, could achieve their goal by choosing soft targets away from the Olympic sites or even outside Sochi. 
 
 The back-to-back December suicide bombings of a railway station and a bus in Volgograd, about 640 kilometers (400 miles) east of Sochi, killed 34 people and demonstrated the militants' ability to strike with shocking ease. A jihadist group in Dagestan, the epicenter of the Islamic rebellion against Russia that has engulfed the Caucasus, claimed responsibility for the Volgograd bombings and has threatened to strike Sochi. 
 
 NTV television said that an F-16 fighter plane was scrambled as soon as the pilot signaled that there was a hijacking attempt.
– As the opening ceremony of the Olympics was unfolding this morning, a passenger aboard a Turkish plane tried to divert it to Sochi, reports CNN. The man, identified only as Ukrainian, announced that a bomb was on board and ordered that the plane fly to Russia, authorities say. He reportedly tried unsuccessfully to get into the cockpit, and the pilot brought the plane down safely in Istanbul. It may not be a serious security threat, however. The AP quotes the Interfax news agency as saying the passenger was "in a state of severe alcohol intoxication," and Reuters says the crew was able to calm him down. Accounts differ, but most now say the man is in custody.