AKIPRESS.COM - A teenager has been detained after opening the emergency door of a passenger plane and sliding down a wing onto the tarmac minutes after touching down in San Francisco, BBC reported officials as saying.

The boy, 17, shocked passengers on board the Copa Airlines flight from Panama City as he flung the door open before leaping out on Tuesday.

He was confronted by construction staff working nearby and held until police arrived to arrest him.

The boy, a US citizen, was not harmed.

Passengers said the teenager seemed fidgety and anxious throughout the flight and that he had acted very quickly, making it difficult to stop him, according to the Associated Press news agency.

It was not immediately clear why the teenager had leapt from the plane and run.

San Francisco Airport spokesman Doug Yakel said the boy was travelling alone, adding that no runways or flights were affected by the incident.

A Copa Airlines Flight 208 crew member closed the emergency door and the plane taxied to its gate, where all remaining passengers alighted without incident, the Panama-based airline said in a statement on Tuesday.

The airline added that an investigation was under way and that it was co-operating with the authorities.