A MARRAKESH-bound flight from Manchester was forced to divert to Portugal after a drunk passenger allegedly attacked cabin crew and "racially abused" fellow travellers.

The unruly traveller, who had been boozing before and during the flight, was escorted from the plane and met by police in Lisbon.

3 A passenger is escorted off an Easyjet flight after allegedly attacking staff

When flight EZ1891 touched down in Portugal, fellow passengers had to spend a night in a hotel before they could continue to their final destination.

It is not known whether the man was arrested or charged by cops.

One passenger from Bolton, who asked not to be named, said: “I have never seen anything like this.

“This passenger appeared to be legless before he boarded the plane and he was given a drink by other passengers consuming their own alcohol.

"We were only an hour from Marrakech when we could see the plane descending.

"Then the captain spoke and said there had been an incident. Then one of the cabin crew said a passenger had got hold of his neck twice because he was drunk.

"The cabin crew said he was being racist to other passengers too. It was all happening at the front of the plane but we were sitting at the back near to where cabin crew were discussing it.

"We landed and police came on the plane and then we were told we'd have to spend the night there. Around 200 passengers were then bussed to hotels - one of which was an hour away."

3 The plane from Manchester to Morocco was diverted to Lisbon, Portugal

They added: "The whole experience was awful. The amount of noise coming from the drunken people felt like we were going to Ibiza or somewhere like that - not what you'd expect on a pane to Marrakech."

Hanif Pankhania, who took a video of the emergency services outside the plane, said: “Well played easyJet for letting p****d passengers on a flight that racially abuse cabin members and disrupting people’s hols to Marrakech.”

The delay also affected the scheduled return leg.

Amy Goy added: “We are now stuck in Marrakesh as our outbound flight cancelled. We had drunk people vomiting on our outbound flight also. This is ridiculous.”

An easyJet spokeswoman confirmed the Manchester to Marrakech flight had been diverted to Lisbon on Saturday due a to a passenger behaving disruptively.

She added: “The aircraft was met by the police upon arrival.”

3 The flight landed in Portugal where the man, who was said to be drunk, was met by police

The spokeswoman said the airline’s cabin crew were trained to ‘assess and evaluate’ all situations and act quickly to ensure the safety of the flight and other passengers is not compromised.

She added: “Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously, do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour on board and always push for prosecution. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet’s priority.

“Unfortunately easyJet had to delay the flight overnight. All affected passengers were communicated with regularly and every effort was made to minimise the impact of the delay. Refreshment vouchers and hotel accommodation were provided to our passengers.

"We would like to thank the passengers for their understanding and apologise sincerely for any inconvenience experienced.”

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