Russian passenger jet makes emergency landing near Moscow

A Russian passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing near Moscow on Thursday after a bird struck the engine during takeoff.

Ural Airlines took to Twitter to confirm that no one was hurt when its U6178 flight, with 234 people on board, landed near Zhukovsky International Airport.

"There was an emergency landing in Zhukovsky. Birds got into both engines. Engines turned off, the crew carried out the landing ... one kilometre away from the runway," TASS state news agency quoted Ural Airlines' general director, Sergei Skuratovб, as saying.

The Airbus 321 was travelling from Moscow to Crimea's Simferopol when the incident occurred.