Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has told airlines to avoid Belarusian airspace after a journalist was detained on a Ryanair flight bound for Lithuania.

In a tweet, Mr Shapps said: “Following the forced diversion of a @Ryanair aircraft to Minsk yesterday, I’ve instructed @UK_CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) to request airlines avoid Belarusian airspace in order to keep passengers safe. I have also suspended Belavia’s operating permit.”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the Commons that the interception was a “shocking assault on civil aviation”.

Roman Protasevich, 26, was detained after his flight from Athens, Greece, was rerouted from its scheduled destination of Vilnius to Minsk on Sunday.

European leaders and the US have strongly condemned the arrest of the Belarusian dissident journalist after the flight he was travelling on from Athens was forced to land in the Belarus capital.

Belarus state media said the aircraft was switched to Minsk following a bomb threat, and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered a MiG-29 fighter jet to escort the flight to Minsk.

However, opposition groups have said it was an operation by Belarus special services to “hijack” the flight so they could arrest Mr Protasevich.

Simon Coveney, foreign minister of Ireland said: “This was effectively aviation piracy, state-sponsored”, and earlier said that inaction from the EU would be seen as weakness.

And Mr Raab described the actions as “outlandish” and a “ruse”.

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