Japan airport runway closed as plane enters wrong taxiway

Narita airport, Japan's main international gateway, was forced to shut one of its two runways today when a plane entered the wrong taxiway after landing, local media reported.

The Boeing 787 Air Canada flight from Montreal, carrying about 210 passengers and crew, was stranded for hours on the taxiway under construction alongside the runway, public broadcaster NHK said.

There were no reports of injuries at the airport east of Tokyo.

Work began to tow away the aircraft five hours after it entered the partially-paved taxiway, NHK said.

Six flights were cancelled and others diverted to alternative airports, the reports said.

Narita handles 40 million passengers and 250,000 flights a year.