More than 130 hamsters grounded a plane for five days after they broke free and ran riot inside the cargo hold.

The rodents had been on a flight from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada, on Portugal’s Sao Miguel Island, last Wednesday, along with ferrets and some caged birds that were due to be delivered to a pet store in the Azores archipelago.

However, when airport staff unloaded the hold they found that the hamsters’ transport boxes were empty.

The plane, belonging to Portugal’s TAP national airline, had to be grounded until all 132 hamsters were recaptured over fears that they might gnaw through the aircraft’s electrical cabling.

It took maintenance staff at Ponta Delgada Airport until Sunday to root out the last 16 hamsters on the plane.

Only then was the Airbus A321neo finally declared rodent-free and fit to return to Lisbon on a so-called “ferry flight” with no passengers on board.