Five people have been rescued after spending 36 hours atop a plane in an alligator-infested swamp in the Amazon after it was forced to make an emergency landing, local authorities said.

The small plane was found by local fishermen in Bolivia’s Amazonas region on Friday having been missing for 48 hours.

The survivors - three women, a child and the 29-year-old pilot - were rescued in “excellent condition”, Wilson Avila, director of the Beni Department’s emergency operations centre, said.

A search and rescue mission was launched on Thursday after the plane disappeared from the radar of the Beni Department in central Bolivia.