Ground staff at Heathrow airport struggled to offload luggage from planes as the UK was battered by high winds and torrential rain.

Darryl, from Hertfordshire, waited more than two hours for his luggage to arrive off a BA flight from Venice.

"After our flight was delayed, we arrived at baggage reclaim and saw hundreds if not thousands of people all huddled around the moving conveyor belts, waiting patiently for their luggage to arrive from the plane.

"There were rows and rows of unclaimed bags just sitting there. After a wait of around two and a half hours, our luggage finally arrived in the carousel - this was longer than the actual flight itself."

British Airways had more than 40 flight cancellations from Heathrow over the weekend.

Some passengers had already checked in before their flights were cancelled at the last minute.

Lauren, 24, from the South East, said her BA flight to Edinburgh was cancelled after she had waited four hours to board.

"They gave us a few options to help, but told us we wouldn't get our luggage back until at least the next morning.

"We've now cancelled our flight, but still have no idea where our bags are."

British Airways apologised for the inconvenience, blaming "bad weather conditions" for the delays.

The airline said: "We are contacting those customers with delayed bags and are getting them sent on to their delivery address provided as quickly as possible.

"We'd like to thank our customers for their patience while our teams continue to work hard in challenging conditions."

Heathrow said: "We are working closely with our airlines partners to help them resolve this issue, our teams are on hand to provide passenger welfare and we apologise for any inconvenience caused."