The Portugal alert was raised while a Ryanair plane scheduled to fly the Lisbon-Rome route was approaching Lisbon airport from the Italian capital. (EPA Images pic)LISBON: A Ryanair flight scheduled to depart from Lisbon for Rome on Friday was targeted by a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, the Portuguese police said.

Dozens of commercial flights in Europe have already been targeted by false alarms this week, forcing the authorities to reroute some planes or escort civilian aircraft with fighter jets.

Staff at several Irish media organisations, meanwhile, were evacuated on Friday after bomb threats were emailed to newsrooms in Ireland, according to media reports.

The Portugal alert was raised while the plane scheduled to fly the Lisbon-Rome route was still approaching Lisbon airport on its way over from the Italian capital.