June 17 (Reuters) - One of two runways at Hong Kong

International Airport was closed on Monday, delaying flights,

due to a damaged cargo plane on the runway that made an

emergency return to the airport after taking off in the early

morning, the airport said.

"A freighter made an emergency turn back and had a tyre

burst incident upon landing. The malfunctioning cargo jet is

currently stationed on the north runway," a spokesperson for the

Hong Kong Airport Authority said in a statement that was still

valid on Monday afternoon.

The airport was not able to say when the runway would

re-open. Its website showed dozens of departures had been

delayed since early morning.

An Atlas Air cargo plane bound for Anchorage, Alaska took

off from the airport at about 4 a.m. on Monday (2000 GMT on

Sunday) before returning to the airport and landing less than

four hours later, flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows.

The Boeing 747 freighter was flying over Taiwan when

it turned back to Hong Kong, the tracking data shows.

U.S.-headquartered Atlas Air did not immediately respond to

a request for comment.