A security boss told a court up to 600 passengers faced delays at Aberdeen Airport during an alleged protest.

Malcolm Brown, a security operations manager, said flights were delayed when nine people, including Kath-erine Mackay, 21, of Birklands Road, Shipley, allegedly broke into the Dyce terminal on March 3 last year. The accused are alleged to have stopped flights from taking off and landing by breaking through barriers using wire cutters and locking themselves to a fence.

The group was said to have committed a breach of the peace and placed others in a state of fear and alarm.

Mr Brown told Aberdeen Sheriff Court between 500 and 600 people arrived at the airport expecting to check in at 4am, but flights did not resume until 9.10am.

But defence agent George Gebbie QC, for accused Mark Andrews, argued the positioning of the protesters had not “physically” prevented any aircraft from taking off.

The other eight accused are Mark Andrews, 26, of Edinburgh; William Boggia, 44, of Ballater, Aberdeen-shire; Matilda Gifford, 25, Daniel Glass, 26, Emilia Karwowska, 20, Jonathan Agnew, 24, and Josephine Hanson, 25, all of Glasgow, and James Kerr, 35, of Paisley, Renfrewshire.

The trial continues.