The passenger plane requested urgent assistance from air traffic control and diverted back to the London airport.

Flight BA864 reported technical issues immediately after departure from Heathrow above Essex.

The Airbus A320 circled over Essex and south-east London before landing back at Heathrow.

The emergency comes as a passenger plane from London Heathrow circled over the UK for two hours after a suspected incident one the weekend.

A United flight to Chicago circled more than 13 times over Wales at 21,000ft on Saturday afternoon after departing Heathrow.

The UA959 flight was diverting back to Heathrow as it made the circuits over Swansea for two hours.

It was believed the Boeing 767 was continuously circling to burn off fuel before returning to London.

The jet, which departed at 3.10pm, finally left the holding pattern at 5.30pm before descending towards the city.

It then landed safely at around 6pm before taxiing to the gate, reportedly while being followed by emergency vehicles.

It has been reported the incident may have been a technical issue on board the plane.

Heathrow has come under fire in recent days for a fire alarm which sparked long delays, and an IT outage by British Airways which grounded all its jets.

It all comes as the airport faced one of its busiest weekends after schools across the country broke up for the summer and Brits started their getaways.