PERTH, AUSTRALIA - UP TO 40 people were injured in a midair incident that forced an Australian Airbus A320 airliner to make an emergency landing on Tuesday, police said.

'It is understood up to 40 people were injured during a midair incident,' Sergeant Greg Lambert of the West Australian Police said after the jet made an emergency landing at an airfield in the town of Exmouth.

'The nature of the midair incident is unknown,' he said.

Australia's national carrier Qantas, which has suffered a spate of incidents in recent months, told AFP it had no information about the incident yet. -- AFP