Moment fed-up Manchester Airport passengers climb through baggage carousel curtain to find luggage as armed cops step in

Video footage has emerged of fed-up holidaymakers at Manchester Airport climbing through a baggage carousel curtain in a bid to retrieve luggage stranded behind it.

One passenger, who flew back in to Terminal 3 on Ryanair from Porto in Portugal on Monday, told of three and a half hour delays to reclaim suitcases and bags. The footage shows armed police being called to the carousel amid angry scenes.

The holidaymaker, a 36-year-old woman from Chadderton, Oldham, told the Manchester Evening News people were offering to load luggage onto the carousel belts themselves before Greater Manchester Police officers attended.

She spoke as holidaymakers faced huge queues at Manchester Airport again on Thursday morning as the Jubilee Bank Holiday began. Pictures shared on social media by frustrated passengers showed queues stretching back to the car park at Terminal 3. Another passenger, meanwhile, posted an image of a lengthy security queue, which he claimed he had waited in for an hour and 40 minutes.

Baggage handler Swissport issued an apology and said current peak periods at airports were 'exacerbating resource challenges across the recovering aviation industry'. The company also revealed it has hired more than 2,800 new personnel since the start of the year.

The holidaymaker who filmed the carousel scenes said: "Passengers got annoyed because they could not get any answers. People were climbing and crawling through the curtain on the carousel belt trying to find their own luggage. The bags were there, but there was no one to put them onto the carousel.

"I do not think that anyone got their bags, but I don't know, and the police came armed. They were closing shutters and walking around making the point. People were just