Cabin crew were needed to keep the travellers apart before the flight from Gibraltar landed at Gatwick after a “really heated argument” broke out between the passengers – one of whom was Spanish and the other Gibraltarian, The Sun reports.

Eyewitnesses on the flight, which arrived at the London airport yesterday afternoon (April 4), claimed the pair swore and made attempts of “getting at each other” when a conversation about the ongoing dispute between Spain and Britain over Gibraltar’s post-Brexit sovereignty turned nasty.

The Rock – which is a British Overseas Territory – has been embroiled in controversy since Friday following a draft of new Brexit negotiating guidelines being published by the European council.

According to the document any decisions made between the UK and EU post-Brexit that affect Gibraltar must be consulted on with Spain first.

An eyewitness on the plane, who asked not to be named, said: ”It was very unnerving and things only calmed down as we got ready to land at Gatwick but even when we arrived police came onto the plane.”

The witness added: “We were coming into land it had been a quiet flight with nothing happening. It was the last 15 minutes the crew were getting ready for the landing procedure.

“All of a sudden we heard this lady start shouting at the people who were behind her. The lady was with a man, both from Gibraltar.

“They were shouting at this group of Spanish that were behind them, there were about seven or eight of them.

“She was saying ‘I’ve had enough’. She started swearing, saying ‘you Spanish are all the time provoking me’.

“I didn’t actually hear the Spanish answer or anything back to her, but she basically had an outburst.

“She kept going at them ‘you’re insulting us, even though I’m Spanish born, I’m from Gibraltar, you’ve been provoking us all afternoon’.

“When we got down to Gatwick the air hostesses said to stay in our seats until the police had boarded the plane.

“The police came on board, they went down to the aisles where these two people were on board and asked them to retrieve their hand luggage."

A spokesperson for Sussex Police confirmed that the authorities had been informed about “disruptive passengers” onboard the easyJet flight, adding: "Officers boarded when the plane landed at Gatwick at 1.30pm. Two people were taken from the flight and given words of advice about their behaviour."

In a statement, a spokesperson for easyJet said two people were met by police at the runway after "behaving disruptively".