A Germanwings plane headed for Milan was evacuated at Cologne-Bonn airport after German police received a bomb threat against the flight.

The airline said the threat against flight 826 to Milan's Malpensa airport was received by federal police this evening.

The tower in Cologne alerted the pilot of the Airbus A320, which was taxiing toward the runway at the time.

The pilot took the plane to a position at the airport that is foreseen for such cases, where the passengers and crew left the aircraft.

Authorities were searching the plane with sniffer dogs. There was no word on details of the threat.