Passengers were evacuated from an Easyjet flight shortly before take-off at Edinburgh Airport.

The Edinburgh to Geneva flight was forced to delay take-off for several hours after a technical fault was discovered on Monday afternoon.

The captain was alerted to the problem shortly before 1pm and decided to order passengers off the plane to allow engineers to deal with the fault.

A replacement flight was put in place and took off from the airport at around 5pm. The airline apologised to customers for the delay.

A spokesman for Easyjet said: "Easyjet can confirm that passengers on flight EZY6907 from Edinburgh to Geneva were disembarked after the captain was alerted to a technical fault with the Hydraulic system prior departure.

"The safety and well-being of our passengers and crew is always Easyjet's highest priority. The passengers disembarked normally to the terminal.

"A replacement aircraft and crew have been sourced to take the passengers to Geneva this afternoon. The crew will offer passengers a complementary refreshment service once the passengers are on board.

"We would like to thank passengers for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience caused."