LONDON: A Pakistan International Airline flight from Islamabad to London was searched by UK?s border agency officials, sources informed Geo News.

Agency officials, including sniffer dogs, searched the plane for five hours.

The 17 British officials took off panels from the plane and did a thorough search. They were acting on a tip-off that drugs were being smuggled aboard the plane.

However, PIA officials said the plane was cleared after no contraband was found.

Earlier in June, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) busted a gang of drug-peddlers involved in smuggling of drugs abroad through PIA aircraft.

The ANF rounded up nine PIA employees from Karachi and one from Lahore.