Two Navy ships deployed to help stranded Britons

Two Royal Navy ships have been deployed to help get stranded travellers back to the UK.

Gordon Brown announced that HMS Ark Royal and HMS Ocean will be made available for the relief effort, following a meeting of the emergency planning committee Cobra in Whitehall.

The Prime Minister said discussions would continue with Spanish premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero about using Madrid as a hub to help stranded British travellers return to the UK.

He added: "This is the biggest challenge to our aviation transport network for many years. We have large numbers of travellers who are trapped in Africa and Asia and the main route home at the moment is the airports that are open in Europe and that is in Spain."

Thousands of stranded air passengers are turning to buses, trains and ferries to complete their journeys home.

In Dover and the French port of Calais, car and buses filled with people lined up to board ferries crossing the English Channel.