Man tries to hijack, divert Alitalia plane to Libya (VIDEO)

A man attempting to hijack an Alitalia jet flying from Paris to Rome was overpowered by cabin crew after he drew out a small knife and demanded the plane divert to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

The would-be hijacker — reportedly a member of the Kazakh delegation at Unesco in Paris — was handed over to police and arrested after flight AZ329 landed at Rome's Fiumicino airport, the BBC reports. He was "clearly agitated," according to a statement from Alitalia.

A doctor traveling on the flight had sedated the man, named by police as Valery Tolmachev, aged 48. He had no previous criminal record, nor any links with militants, according to reports, and the motive for the attack was not yet clear.

Witnesses said the man put a small knife to the throat of a female flight attendant, NBC reports. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that it was a nail-clipper

Stefanie, a French woman who lives in Italy, said the man laughed when the flight attendant asked him to go the front of the plane with her.

"He held her for just a few minutes and then the other flight attendants intervened and passengers helped hold the man to the floor," she said, according to NBC.

The incident, near the front of the plane, was over so quickly that passengers seated further back were unaware of it, Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reported.

There were 131 people on board.