News

Travellers on board a Vietnam Airlines flight to Tokyo faced a four-hour delay this weekend as an energetic little white mouse gave his pursuers the run-around on board a Boeing 777 jet.

An alarmed passenger alerted airline staff to the rodent's presence while the plane was still on the tarmac at Hanoi, reports claim although according to the head of the airline's air safety department, the creature was sitting in a food storage area when it was spotted.

Passengers were swiftly spirited away to a hotel while 'technicians' pursued the mouse, local press reports claimed.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, the flight was finally able to take off after the unfortunate mouse was caught and killed.

Vietnam Airlines employees denied that anything untoward had happened which might cause concern about the state of hygiene on board the airline's jets.

They suggested that the mouse had probably been bought on board in hand luggage by a passenger before it escaped.

'This is the first time we experienced something like this,' airline spokesman Nguyen Chan told Associated Press.

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