A Manchester-bound holiday jet has been forced to land in Cyprus after an engine problem.

The XL Airways Boeing 737-900 aircraft, with more than 200 passengers and crew aboard, was on its way to Britain from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh.

A spokeswoman for the airline said: "There was a vibration which caused the crew to shut down one of the engines and a request was made to land at Larnaca in Cyprus."

The plane landed normally at about 1am local time on Wednesday with the passengers able to disembark in the normal way.

Nearly all the passengers were able to fly off a few hours later in a Boeing 737-800 aircraft and arrived at Manchester at about 11am on Wednesday.

Eighteen passengers who had been unable to board the slightly-smaller replacement plane are being flown back to Manchester later.

XL Airways is looking into the cause of the incident.