Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been detained after flying back to Moscow five months after he was nearly killed by a nerve agent attack last year.

Mr Navalny, 44, was seen being led away by police at passport control.

Big crowds earlier gathered at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to greet his flight from Berlin but the plane was rerouted.

The activist says the authorities were behind the attempt on his life, an allegation backed up by investigative journalists but denied by the Kremlin.

European Council President Charles Michel described Mr Navalny’s detainment as “unacceptable”.

“I call on Russian authorities to immediately release him,” Mr Michel wrote in a tweet.