At least 37 people have been injured on board an Air Canada flight that hit severe turbulence and had to make an emergency landing.

The plane – carrying 284 passengers and crew – was travelling from Vancouver to Sydney but was diverted to Hawaii.

Thirty people were taken to hospital in Honolulu on Thursday. Nine had severe injuries, officials say.

Air Canada said the Boeing 777-200 jet “encountered sudden clear air turbulence... two hours past Hawaii”.

It added that it was arranging hotels in Honolulu until a new flight to Australia could be arranged.

The plane landed in Hawaii at 06:46 local time (16:46 GMT) on Thursday.

“We hit turbulence and we all hit the roof, and everything fell down... people went flying,” Jess Smith, a passenger on board the flight, told local TV station KHON.

“Some people that weren't strapped in, you saw them rise in the air and hit their heads on the roof and everything, so it was quite intense,” another passenger told the station.

Alex Macdonald, from Brisbane, told Canadian broadcaster CBC News the passengers on board were “extremely shocked”.

“I saw the people ahead of me hitting the overhead baggage compartments and then just slamming back into their seats,” she added.

Photographs taken inside the aircraft show that oxygen masks were released and service trolleys thrown over during the incident.

•Text (excluding headline) courtesy of BBC. Reuters photo shows emergency workers assist passengers on Air Canada flight AC33 after it was diverted to Hawaii

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