An airline has said it was aware of a security alert on one of its flights before it took off.

Budget airline Ryanair was forced to divert its Lithuania to London Luton flight on the morning of October 4 after Lithuanian authorities received what they believed to be a hoax security alert.

The flight was cleared to take off after being searched, but was diverted to Stansted, the designated airport for dealing with major security alerts, by RAF typhoons at the request of UK authorities.

A spokesman for Ryanair said: “This flight from Kaunas to London Luton was delayed ahead of take-off after Lithuanian authorities received a suspected hoax security alert.

"Police carried out a security search and cleared the aircraft to return to service, customers boarded and the flight departed to Luton.

"While on approach to Luton, upon the request of UK authorities, the aircraft diverted to London Stansted in line with security procedures, and landed normally at Stansted, where customers disembarked and were transferred to Luton by coach.

"Local police carried out a further search and cleared the aircraft to resume service once more."

Flight operations were held while the plane landed and flights resumed as usual shortly after.