Dutch police confirm 12 arrests on US plane

AMSTERDAM, Aug 23 (Reuters) Dutch police confirmed the arrests of 12 passengers on a US Northwest Airlines plane bound for India which was forced to turn back to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport today.

''The 12 people that have been arrested were passengers,'' a spokesman said. ''They will be interrogated in the coming hours by police investigators''.

Asked whether a suspected terrorist attack could be ruled out, the spokesman said: ''We don't want to get ahead of ourselves''.

REUTERS MS RAI2331