A British Airways flight from Heathrow was delayed for several hours - after a mouse was spotted on the plane.

Passengers on the 10.40am flight to San Francisco were told they would have to get off the aircraft as it could not take off with the rodent on board.

They then had to wait several hours to get on another plane to continue their journey.

Some passengers took to Twitter to vent their surprise at what had happened.

Mark Watt wrote: "Just had my flight to SFO cancelled because of a mouse on board the plane. Could it not get a visa??"

While another user, Midland, tweeted: "There is a mouse on the plane. We must all get off."

He then added: "I'm going to sell this to the movies. It can be the slightly more pedestrian prequel to snakes on a plane. Maybe this is what lured them on?"

Midland then went on to discuss the mouse's travel plans.

"Mouse in his Hawaiian shirt and fedora. Mouse in his trackies. Mouse with eye mask on. Mouse with his pride flag ready to find love in San Fran."

A British Airways spokeswoman said: "We know almost everyone wants to fly with us to San Francisco.

"But on this occasion there was one very small customer who we had to send back to the gate."