Flight diverted after passenger finds live mouse in meal

The Scandinavian Airlines plane was travelling from Norway's capital Oslo to the Spanish city Malaga (file image)

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has said one of its flights had to make an unscheduled landing after a mouse scurried out of a passenger's in-flight meal on Wednesday.

The aircraft was flying from Norway's capital Oslo to Malaga in Spain but had to divert to Copenhagen, Denmark instead.

The diversion was in line with company procedures as the furry stowaway posed a safety risk, airline spokesperson Oystein Schmidt told the AFP news agency.

Passengers on the flight were later flown to Malaga on a different aircraft.

Airlines usually have strict restrictions involving rodents on board planes in order to prevent electrical wiring being chewed through.

"This is something that happens extremely rarely," Mr Schmidt said.

"We have established procedures for such situations, which also include a review with our suppliers to ensure this does not happen again."

Jarle Borrestad experienced the incident first-hand, telling the BBC News Channel in a recorded video that the mouse escaped from the box of food that the woman sat next to him on the flight was opening.

Mr Borrestad said the situation was very calm and that people "were not stressed at all".

However, he admitted that he did put his socks over his trousers so the mouse did not crawl up his legs.

Mr Borrestad said that while the flight was diverted, it only added a few extra hours to the journey.

It is the second rodent-related travel incident in a week.

A train service in southern England had to be terminated mid-journey after two squirrels boarded a carriage and one refused to get off.