Pilots and cabin crew of a British Airways flight were reported to be wearing oxygen masks mid-flight after burning smells from the cockpit forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing.

Flight BA327 was forced to make a "priority landing" at Heathrow around 20 minutes into a flight from Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on Monday (July 27) evening.

A Mayday call was made by the pilots flying the Airbus A320, which was carrying 163 passengers.

A British Airways spokeswoman told getwestlondon: "Our Paris flight landed safely after our highly trained pilots took the precaution of requesting a priority landing due to a suspected technical problem.

"Safety is always our number one priority."

It is believed the burning smell was caused by a technical problem with the cooling system, according to tweets on social media site Twitter.

Passenger Dave Luckett tweeted about the in-flight scare.

The calm and collected work of BA's cabin crew and pilots were praised by passengers onboard.

The plane was met by fire engines on touch down at Heathrow.