Beijing - An Air China plane returned to Beijing 10 minutes after take-off Thursday after a telephoned threat of a terrorist attack that later appeared to be a hoax, state media said.

Flight CA1595 to the eastern city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, was ordered to return to Beijing's Capital International Airport after an anonymous caller threatened unspecified "dangerous action" against flights to Zhejiang, the Shanghai Daily newspaper and other media said.

The plane was evacuated after landing, but security officers found nothing suspicious on board or in the passengers' luggage, and it was cleared to take off again about four hours later than scheduled, the newspaper said, quoting Air China official Zhu Mei as saying.

"Subsequent investigations determined that the threat was a false alarm," the official Xinhua news agency said.

Security officers also searched a second flight from Beijing to Zhejiang's Wenzhou city but found nothing suspicious, the reports said. (dpa)