Passengers were being escorted from the plane, flight AI 379, in line with emergency plans, an Airports of Thailand (AOT) official said.

There were 156 passengers on the flight and the bomb threat was received on board the plane, it said in a statement.

The aircraft took off from Phuket airport for the Indian capital at 9.30am today, but made a wide loop around the Andaman Sea and landed back at the Thai island, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.

The incident follows the crash of an Air India flight in Ahmedabad yesterday shortly after takeoff, in which more than 240 people were killed.

AOT did not provide details on the bomb threat. Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Indian airlines and airports were inundated with hoax bomb threats last year, with nearly 1,000 hoax calls and messages received in the first 10 months, nearly 10 times that of 2023.