A plane was forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger’s “unbearable” body odour caused other holiday-makers around him to vomit and faint.

The flight was heading to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria when it had to make an unexpected detour when travellers became distressed by the stench of a man who “smelt like he hadn’t washed in weeks”.

The man smelt so bad other passengers started to faint and vomit after the flight took off from Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.

Staff on board the Transavia service reportedly tried to quarantine him in a toilet of the Boeing 737 before the pilots were forced to divert the flight, the mirror.co reports.

They landed in Faro in southern Portugal so the foul-smelling man could be removed from the flight.

A Transavia spokesman said: “The aeroplane diverted because of medical reasons, but it is indeed right that he smelled quite a bit.”