Earlier, US federal agents had detained John Demjanjuk at his home in Ohio, carrying him out in a wheelchair.

But a US federal appeals court granted an 11th hour stay of deportation after Mr Demjanjuk's family argued that he was too ill to be transported.

He is accused of being a guard at the Sobibor death camp in World War II.

Mr Demjanjuk denies the charges, claiming that he was captured by the Germans in his native Ukraine during the war and kept as a prisoner of war.