A plane did a U-turn in mid air and made an emergency landing at Gatwick after a passenger was taken ill.

The pilots declared an emergency around 40 minutes after the flight bound for Agadir in Morocco took off.

Wizz Air said the safety of passengers and crew is a "number one priority" after flight 95859 made the emergency landing at Gatwick yesterday evening.

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A passenger had a medical emergency on board the Airbus A321 and it was decided to return to Gatwick where paramedics met the plane.

It had up to 230 passengers on board and had taken off from the South Terminal an hour late at 5.20pm.

It had crossed the Channel before making a U-turn over Brittany in France shortly before 6pm.

The pilots used squawk code 7700 to let controllers on the ground know the plane was experiencing a problem and needed to land quickly.

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The flight took off once again at 7.55pm and landed in Agadir at 9.20pm local time.

A spokeswoman for Wizz Air said: "The safety of passengers and crew on board our aircraft is our number one priority.

"Due to a medical emergency involving a passenger on board flight W95859 we were required to return to Gatwick for urgent medical assistance."