Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tweeted he had been alerted to a “potential hijack” of the Libyan plane.
“Informed of potential hijack situation of a #Libya internal flight diverted to #Malta. Security and emergency operations standing by - JM,” he tweeted from his official account.
Maltese government sources told AFP there were 118 people on board the plane, including seven crew.
The hijacked airliner landed in Malta at 11.32 am and “two people on board the flight are threatening to blow up the aircraft”, The Malta Independent quoted its sources as saying.
The Airbus 320 had been on a domestic flight operated by the state-run Afriqiyah Airways.
Emergency measures have been put in place at Malta International Airport and a spokesperson from the Armed Forces of Malta said various units, including the “C Special Duties company”, a counter-terrorism unit, had been deployed.
Libya has been in a state of chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Moammer Qaddafi left warring militias battling for control of different parts of the country. Forces loyal to a fledgling national unity government recently took control of the coastal city of Sirte, which had been a bastion for the Islamic State since June 2015.
Western powers have pinned their hopes of containing jihadis in the energy-rich North African state on the government but it has failed to establish its authority over all of the country.
A rival authority rules the country’s far east, backed by the forces under military strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who have been battling jihadists in second city Benghazi.