The BBC's Eva Millet: "All passengers and crew are reported to be unharmed"

Spanish Interior Ministry officials said the plane, a Boeing 737-400 belonging to the Royal Air Maroc airline, was carrying 88 passengers and crew.

The man had been demanding that the plane should be refuelled and allowed to fly to Frankfurt in Germany. The incident ended peacefully after five hours of negotiations and all the hostages were released safely.

The Spanish authorities described the man as a 45-year-old Moroccan but did not release his name. They said he had been armed with a fake pistol.

Interior Ministry spokesman Eduardo Planells said police were checking the passengers to see if there were accomplices trying to hide among them.

Early reports suggested there had been as many as three hijackers aboard the plane,.

A team of police specialists and psychologists had been in contact with the man but the motive for the hijack is not known.

An interior ministry spokesman said the plane had taxied to an isolated part of the airport and had been surrounded in line with routine procedures for such cases.