Ryanair passengers stuck on a plane for three hours and refused food and drink by flight attendants had to call police before they could get off.

More than 100 people had to wait on a plane left on the tarmac before police were called to allow passengers to wait in the terminal.

A video posted on Youtube shows that while Ryanair customers waited inside the aircraft some asked staff for food and water but flight attendants refused the requests.

Ryanair has since apologised, but claimed water had been given to passengers on the plane and said the captain had also called the police for assistance.

A Ryanair spokesman said strong winds forced more than 20 airlines to divert into Stansted on February 14, disrupting handling and fuelling operations at the airport.

He added: “After approximately two hours the captain requested the handling company, Swissport, to allow the passengers into the terminal which was locked.

“When Swissport failed to arrive the captain requested the police to let the passengers into the locked terminal.’

A spokesman for Swissport said: "Swissport staff were under extreme pressure dealing with an unprecedented level of flights and whilst we accept we should have unloaded the passengers sooner we simply had no one available to unload when contacted by the captain.

“Swissport regrets any delay to passengers and to Ryanair.”

The flight from Stansted to Porto, in Portugal, was due to take off at 8.30pm on Valentine’s Day, but eventually departed 11 hours later.