The airline that kicked Jewish children off a plane must be investigated, a former attorney general has said.

Sir Michael Ellis KC said he was “deeply concerned” after a group of Jewish children returning to France from a summer camp in Spain were escorted off a flight after at least one of them sang a Hebrew song.

The Spanish airline Vueling allegedly removed the director of a Jewish summer camp and approximately 50 children from the flight to Paris, according to footage shared on social media on Wednesday. The airline said the group had “compromised passenger safety”.

Following the incident, Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating anti-Semitism, described the incident as an example of “serious” anti-Semitism, adding that the children, aged between 10 and 15, had been singing songs in Hebrew on the plane.

Spanish police said the children’s removal from the plane had nothing to do with their singing but it was instead due to “misbehaviour”.