The Dutch military police have arrested 12 passengers of a Northwest Airlines flight that was escorted back to Amsterdam by two F-16 fighter jets on Wednesday.

Sources say the 12 were pointed out by the aircraft's crew. No further details have been released, But Northwest Airlines says a number of passengers were acting suspiciously.

Some passengers say they saw men being taken away by police.

"…All I could see were the security police took a lot of people out and handcuffed a few of them and took them away".

The nationalities of the detainees have not been disclosed, nor has the nature of the suspicions.

The plane was on its way to Mumbai of India. Shortly after takeoff from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the pilot was requested to return for security reasons.