Two Cuban soldiers tried to hijack a passenger plane to escape to the United States with hostages on Thursday but were arrested after killing an unarmed military officer on board, the government said.

The soldiers, who had escaped from an army base where they were doing military service, hijacked a bus with passengers, took it to the domestic terminal of Havana airport and seized an empty passenger jet before dawn.

They killed one of the hostages, an army lieutenant colonel, when he tried to stop the hijacking, but were then captured by a military unit, the government said in a statement.