An Emirates A380 plane with more than 500 people on board had to make an emergency landing in Sri Lanka on Friday due to a "technical fault", aviation officials said.

The aircraft was en route to Dubai from Sydney when it was diverted to Colombo, where it landed safely early on Friday morning.

"Emirates flight EK413 from Sydney to Dubai... was diverted to Colombo due to a technical fault," the airline said in a statement that gave no details about the nature of the problem.

An airport spokesman said fire fighting crew and emergency units had been placed on standby.

"We were told of a technical fault with the airport and they were coming in for an emergency landing," said the spokesman, who asked not to be named.

"No one was hurt and an investigation is under way."

Emirates carried out its first A380 landing in Colombo in 2012 but the airport has yet to be upgraded to handle the biggest passenger airliner.

The airline said passengers were being transferred to other Emirates flights.-Reuters