A DC-10 aircraft belonging to Ghana Airways has been impounded at Heathrow Airport after a British company called in liquidators over unpaid debts of more than ?4 million.

It left hundreds of Ghanaians stranded after the airline suspended services to the UK and Italy, its other European destination.

Lawyers and insolvency practitioners acting on behalf of AJ Walters Aviation, an aircraft parts supplier based in Partridge Green, West Sussex, boarded the aircraft on Tuesday when it arrived from Accra, the capital of the west African state.

Officials from the liquidators, Benedict Mackenzie, allowed passengers to disembark and their luggage to be removed from the plane before announcing to the crew that they were taking possession of the DC-10. The aircraft, which is said to be worth about ?3 million, is now parked at Heathrow.

AJ Walters claims that it has been owed the money by Ghana Airways for more than two years and on Tuesday applied to a court for a provisional liquidation order.

Negotiations have begun aimed at reaching an agreement that would allow the airline to resume flights but lawyers said that any other planes arriving in the UK would also be seized.

Ghana Airways was once part of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) but left in 1962 and was nationalised the following year. Since then it has fallen on hard times.

Last year the airline decided to find a joint venture partner after its government failed to provide it with an ?55 million injection to pay off its ?103 million debts and restructure its operations.

It is now in negotiations with two foreign firms, Tryaton of Switzerland and T&E, a Lebanese company, that have proposed bailing out the ailing carrier. The companies have proposed providing a fleet of aircraft, cash and management support to Ghana Airways in a bid to resuscitate it in return for a three or five-year joint venture agreement.

Last night, agreement was said to be close as talks continued in London and Accra between creditors, the company and the Ghanaian government.