Pet cat spends four nights in airport after escaping from hand-luggage before finally being caught

This is the amusing moment police caught a pet cat which escaped while boarding a plane - and spent four nights living in an airport.

The Persian cat was in a carry-on case with its owner as she waited at the gate for a flight at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, last Tuesday (1 October).

But as people started boarding, the nervous-flyer kitty forced its way out of the bag and dashed for the exit before disappearing inside the sprawling airport departure lounge area.

The owner cancelled her trans-pacific flight to the U.S. while airport security monitored CCTV to find the want-away moggy.

It was spotted at 4 am local time on October 2 but evaded police - not being seen again until the early hours of the morning on Friday (4 October) in the walkway outside Gate E8.

CCTV shows how two uniformed airport police and the head of security struggled to catch the cat before finally subduing it with a purple blanket.

The moggy's owner was called and arrived the next day (5 October) for an emotional reunion with her beloved pet. The woman, who has not been named, was then finally able to continue with her onward journey.

She told police she had been unable to sleep while ''worrying every day and night'' about her cat.

She said she feared she would never see the animal again after it disappeared inside the 8,000-acre airport, which currently handles 60 million passengers a year.

Airport boss Kittipong Kittikajorn said: ''The passenger thanked everyone for helping to reunite her with the cat.

''The airport security team were able to monitor CCTV cameras for the cat. They tried several times to capture it before they were finally successful.''