A British Airways flight carrying holidaymakers to Greece was forced to turn back when a "nasty smell" filled the cabin.

Passengers complained of smelling a foul odour, reportedly compared to the smell of cannabis by some, on the flight to Heraklion airport after takeoff from Gatwick on Thursday morning.

The pilot turned back as a precaution and the flight was met by fire crews when it landed 90 minutes later.

Passenger Simon Skinner tweeted: "@British_Airways flight to heraklion turned back after nasty smell. Disappointed holidaymakers."

Stuart Barnes, 40, told The Sun: "We were four rows from the back and the whole area stank. Everyone was saying it was cannabis.

"We were told the air con would clear it but it got even stronger."

Passengers were eventually put on a rescheduled flight at midday.

A BA spokeswoman said no evidence of cannabis or anybody smoking cannabis was found on board.

She added: "Our pilot returned the aircraft to Gatwick as a precaution following reports of an unidentified strong smell in the cabin.

"We are sorry for the delay to our customers' journeys."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.