A Turkish Airlines flight en route to Turkey from New York has been diverted to Canada following a bomb threat, according to Canadian officials.

The bomb alert was received at 02:50 after the plane had taken off from the John F Kennedy International Airport, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police office for Nova Scotia said on Twitter.

Police will be "searching the Turkish Airlines plane using police dogs trained in explosives", it added.

There were 256 people on board the plane. All are reported safe.

"RCMP is looking to establish the origin of the threat and identify the person or persons responsible."

This comes after days of tensions and increased airport security worldwide over possible attacks.

Last week's attacks in Paris left 130 people dead and hundreds injured, and a few days later Russia confirmed a plane with 224 people on board which crashed in the Sinai in October is likely to have gone down as a result of a terror attack. 

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