A Chinese woman reportedly downed a full bottle of £120 cognac at security control after she was told she was not allowed to take liquids on board her flight – which she was then prevented from boarding.

The woman, who has been named only as Zhao, was deemed too drunk to fly by staff at Beijing Capital international airport when she collapsed shortly after drinking the bottle of Rémy Martin XO Excellence.

Police and airline staff then reportedly denied the woman access to the flight, concerned her inebriation would be a safety risk.

She is believed to have purchased the cognac at a US airport and was in transit through Beijing, where she was due to take a domestic flight to Wenzhou.

Staff told her she was not allowed to carry the bottle in her hand luggage because it exceeded the 100ml limit, and apparently not wanting to waste the purchase, she drank the entire contents.

One local paper described how she had started shouting at the departure gate before collapsing. “She was rolling on the ground, shouting,” a police officer told the Beijing Times

She was taken back to the airport lounge in a wheelchair and the airport’s medical staff were called to assist her, the officer added.

The South China Morning Post reported that the woman woke up seven hours later and thanked police for assisting her, and that family members had arrived to escort her home.