An Afghan refugee fleeing to the UK gave birth to a baby girl at 30,000 feet while on an evacuation flight destined for Birmingham.

Soman Noori, 26, was travelling on an evacuation flight from Dubai to Birmingham, having previously left Kabul, when she went into labour in airspace over Kuwait, Turkish Airlines said.

There was no doctor on board the flight, forcing the Turkish Airlines cabin crew to deliver the baby girl, who has been named Havva by her mother and father, 30-year-old husband Taj Moh Hammat.

Her name translates to Eve in English, and she is the couple’s third child.

Turkish Airlines said in a statement that both mother and baby were healthy, and although the flight had landed in Kuwait as a precaution, it then carried on its route to Birmingham and landed at 11.45am.

Photographs and video footage showed Turkish Airlines crew cradling the baby and handing her to her mother.