Furious passengers claimed that they had to wait in a baggage reclaim hall for more than three hours while waiting for their luggage - with children even forced to sleep on the baggage carousel.

They have slammed Bristol Airport after being forced to wait in the hall for hours in the middle of the night.

Passengers had arrived at the airport later than expected after delays in flights heading to Bristol.

Bosses at the airport said that several 'off-schedule flights' arriving at the time caused a backlog in baggage handling.

An airport spokesman also promised that there will be a review into what went wrong.

However, that proved to be little comfort for angry passengers who blasted the airport.

One person contacted the airport on Twitter and said: 'What's going on?? Meeting Berlin flight waiting for 90mins for luggage!! Unacceptable.'

He later added: 'An hour and three quarters now. This is the bread and butter of your job and you clearly aren't capable of doing it.

'It's not like a load of unexpected planes can turn up!'

And when his bags finally arrived, he tweeted: 'Two hours 15 mins in the end - Mrs May makes faster progress on Brexit than that!'

The full apology from the airport said: 'Sorry for the delay that you experienced.

'This was caused by a number of off schedule flights arriving at the time. Airport staff were in location to assist with information and queries.

'On behalf of your airline we apologise for the delay.'

A spokesperson told Bristol Live: 'Delays were experienced to the arrival of passengers baggage overnight Sunday, December 23 and Monday, December 24 to a small number of flights.

'This was caused due to flight disruption across the flight schedule earlier in the day.

'As a result of the knock-on effect with the delayed flights arriving off scheduled, airline ground handling resources were stretched at times, meaning some passengers experienced baggage delays.

'We continue to work with our airline handling partners to limit the inconvenience caused to passengers. Airline handling and customer service staff were present in the baggage reclaim area assisting during the delay.

'Bristol Airport apologises and appreciates the frustration passengers experienced due to the delay in the arrival of their bags.'