A stowaway has been found alive after hiding in the wheel well of a plane which flew from London to Maastricht airport.

The youngster was found on Thursday afternoon in the space next to the aircraft landing gear and was taken to hospital suffering from severe hypothermia.

‘He has had a tremendous amount of luck to survive this,’ a spokesman for Maastricht Aachen airport said. Most stowaways who lie low in wheel wells either freeze to death or fall out of their hiding place during the flight.

The short flight took place at a lower altitude to long haul flights, the spokesman told local broadcaster Limburg1.

According to LuchtvaartNieuws.nl, there was just one flight from London to Maastricht on Thursday, an Airbus A330 cargo flight operated by Turkish Airlines.

Update Friday afternoon: Border police said on Friday afternoon that the stowaway appears to be a 16-year-old boy from Kenya. He is ‘doing reasonably well’ in hospital.