A Scoot flight from Gold Coast to Singapore was forced to turn around and divert to Sydney after a violent brawl broke out mid-flight.

The fight broke out about two hours into the flight, and is believed to have been instigated by a male passenger who had been drinking heavily.

The passenger was tied up by his wrists using a restraining kit, with many passengers helping to hold him down for more than three hours after the fight.

There have been shocking scenes on board an international @flyscootJP flight from the Gold Coast after a man lashed out punching several passengers. @Bianca_Stone #7News pic.twitter.com/SpdkdCDEpn

— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) January 21, 2019

“I don’t think there was anything that caused (the fight) other than him being quite drunk,” passenger Rico Garilli told Sunrise.

“Before we’d even taken off, staff couldn’t control him, he was provoking people for no reason. We probably shouldn’t have taken off.

“The person he first provoked wasn’t even the person he got in a fight with. He was just out for a fight, really.

“The crew didn’t really know what to do. The size of him, none of them were going to take him down. Luckily we did have the bigger blokes on the plane that did take him down rather successfully.

“He ended up pushing one of the crew, took his top off and went for a run where he got taken down again and he was for three hours being held down by the passengers. All the crew could really do was provide cable ties.

“Staff couldn’t control him… we probably shouldn’t have taken off in the first place” — a passenger onboard a flight from Gold Coast to Singapore which was forced to turn around after a man had to be restrained. pic.twitter.com/76eMkw3HSb

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) January 21, 2019

Scoot however denied that the passenger was drunk before he boarded.

“During boarding and takeoff, the passenger appeared normal. After takeoff, he began to disturb surrounding passengers,” Scoot said in a statement.

“A while later, the unruly passenger punched another passenger. Following safety procedure, our crew stepped in to break up the fight and were assisted by other passengers.

“The unruly passenger was eventually subdued with two restraining kits, with the help of five passengers.”

It was a huge ordeal for passengers who were heading to Singapore from the Gold Coast but ended up in Sydney many hours later. They were eventually transferred to other flights back to Singapore.

The man was met by Australian Federal Police and paramedics in Sydney. No charges have been laid.