A Tunisair flight from Tripoli to Tunisia has finally left Tripoli Airport after spending hours on the runway while protesters blocked the aircraft, preventing it from taking off.

Two Maltese nationals were on the plane

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said the protesters seemed to want to keep the Tunisair aircraft from leaving because they were objecting to someone who was on the plane.

The Maltese nationals contacted Malta's embassy in Tripoli and the Foreign Affairs Ministry are in contact with them.

Libyan sources said the plane was stopped by Tripoli revolutionaries from Souk Jomaa to press the government to take steps about the clashes which left seven dead in Bani Walid last Wednesday.

Bani Walid was one of slain Muammar Gaddafi’s last bastions of support.

Five of those who died were revolutionaries from Souk Jomaa.

The fighting began after new regime troops, some of them civilian volunteers in the former rebel army, were involved in a high-speed chase with a suspect vehicle in which a Gaddafi loyalist was killed.