THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ? Police in India's southern tourist resort state of Kerala said on Sunday they had recovered explosives from an airliner.

The explosives, made in India, were discovered as airport personnel were offloading luggage from a Kingfisher Airlines flight that had arrived at Kerala's main Thiruvananthapuram airport from Bangalore.

"The explosive was found wrapped in a newspaper," senior Kerala police officer P Chandrashekar told AFP.

It was not immediately known whether the police were dealing a completed bomb or some other form of munitions.

"We are investigating the nature of the explosive and how it got into the aircraft," the officer said, adding that the passengers and crew were safe.

Security at Indian airports and on airliners has been high since a December 1999 hijack of state-run Indian Airlines plane, en route to New Delhi from Nepal, by Islamic militants.

The hijackers forced the pilot to fly the plane to Taliban stronghold Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and freed the 167 passengers and crew only after New Delhi agreed to release four Islamic militants.

In January, the federal civil aviation ministry ordered a further increase of airport security after Western intelligence agencies warned India of a possible hijack attempt by groups aligned to Al-Qaeda or by Pakistan-based militant groups.