A two-year-old girl has died on board a flight from Germany to the US.
The plane was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Shannon Airport this afternoon.
It is understood the child was among a group of 24 Eritrean nationals who were part of a repatriation programme being organised by the International Organisation for Migration.
They were on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to JFK in New York when a medical emergency arose with the child and the aircraft diverted to Shannon.
There were 303 passengers on board and over 20 crew on the flight.
Gardaí are interviewing the group that was with the child as well as other passengers who were seated close by to try to establish the circumstances that led to the child's death.
The child's body will be transferred to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick for a post mortem to establish the exact cause of death.
