Swedish woman in airport muddle

It was unclear if the woman thought this was a new check-in method

An elderly Swedish woman tried to get herself on board an international flight by climbing onto an unmanned luggage belt after her suitcase.

The incident happened at Stockholm's Arlanda airport.

The unnamed 78-year-old thought she was just following instructions on how to check in for her flight.

She carefully lay down on the conveyor belt and was whisked into the baggage handling bay where she was rescued by surprised staff.

"It was a bit unfortunate," said Ari Kallonen of baggage handling firm Nordic Aero. "The little old lady arrived at the airport and had to take care of herself.

"Unfortunately, she did not understand when she was given check-in instructions. She took the belt together with her bag. Luckily it wasn't a long ride - only a couple of metres."

The woman did not reportedly suffer any injuries, managing to catch her flight to Germany, police said.

The airport does provide a service, on request, to help guide elderly or vulnerable people through the departures process.