A Ryanair flight from the Canary Islands to the UK has been forced to divert to Portugal after a brawl broke out on the plane.

Police sources in Portugal said seven passengers were involved in the fight and one person had been arrested.

There has yet to be any official comment from Portuguese authorities however an inside source has claimed that all the brawling passengers were British.

The flight departed Luton this morning at 8.30am and was due to touch down in Lanzarote at 12.15pm local time.

However, after the fight, the plane was diverted to Faro instead and landed at the airport at around 10.50am local time.

It is not the first time in recent months that Ryanair planes have had to divert to Portugal.

In December, three of the budget airline's aircrafts had to change their destination mid-flight and land in Faro.

On December 20 a Boeing 737 landed at the airport in the Algarve region with 202 people on board. It was meant to land in London Stansted but had to reroute due to a technical problem.

After a "red code" alert was issued, the flight landed safely. Over 30 emergency response vehicles were put on standby.

A "red code" alert was issued and led to 35 emergency response vehicles and nearly 80 responders including firefighters and civil protection workers being put on standby, although the plane landed safely.

A week earlier, another Ryanair plane heading from Manchester to Tenerife had to divert to the same airport amid another "red alert" which was also based on a technical fault.

The Tuesday before that, a budget airline plane heading from London Stansted to Morocco landed at Faro after the pilot fell ill.