An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a military base in France after a bomb threat.

Reports are starting to come in from passengers on the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome that was diverted due to a bomb threat.

Since then, a number of other flights have been diverted, with seven aircraft so far across Europe being subject to bomb threats.

The Aer Lingus flight alerted air traffic control to an emergency while travelling through French air space, and it was the office of the French Prime Minister that made the news public.

When speaking to The Claire Byrne Show, Paris-based journalist John Litchfield said that the fact the diversion was announced by the Prime Minister's office indicated that the country was taking the threat very seriously.

He explained: "Bomb threats happen, unfortunately, and obviously, there is a particular situation at the moment where this seems to be a campaign by someone unknown, we believe unknown anyway, to do this.

"But the fact that this is being handled at the prime minister's office level in France certainly suggests that this is being taken very seriously."

While it looked like the plane was diverting to another airport, it eventually landed in the French military base in Evreux.

The prime minister's office explained that the bomb squad unit was already in place at the base, and hence the plane was escorted to that airport.

The statement went on to say that the passengers and crew were moved to a safe place before the bomb squad got on board the plane, but that seems to be conflicting with reports from those passengers on the plane.

Speaking to Claire, a listener called Ruairi shared how his friend is on the flight with his family and he was sending photos of the Air Force jets escorting them to land at the base.

He shared: "He was sending us through a group message to some of our friends, some photos of Air Force jets flying beside the plane.

"He's just sent us a photograph from the plane out on the tarmac. So they're all still on the plane.