RAF fighter jets scramble to intercept unidentified Russian bomber heading towards Britain

The jets flew towards Shetland, on the north east coast of Scotland, and were seen on trackers circling a nearby area.

Defence sources confirmed that the British planes were used as part of a wider Nato response to track the foreign aircraft.

It is understood that the unidentified warplane remained out of British airspace and did not require interception by the Typhoons, which later returned to base.

The incident comes amid growing tensions between the UK and Russia.

In recent weeks, Russian warships, submarines, spy ships and sanctioned oil tankers have all come within close proximity of Britain.

Last week it was revealed that Britain had thwarted a secret submarine mission by the Russians that posed the threat of damage to energy and data cables.

The Defence Secretary, John Healey, told a press conference in Downing Street that in the past few weeks, while many eyes were trained on the Middle East crisis, the UK, in partnership with Norway and other allies, responded to "increased Russian activity" in the Atlantic north of the UK.

This involved a Russian Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and two specialist submarines from Russia’s ministry of defence deep sea research programme known as GUGI (Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research).

Mr Healey said: "To President Putin we say, we see you.

"We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences."

Mr Healey claimed Mr Putin wants the UK to be "distracted" by the Middle East.

The Defence Secretary said: "What I'm setting out today demonstrates that we are not just exposing his covert operation, but we are saying to him that we recognise Russia as the primary threat to the UK and to Nato.

"We will not take our eyes off Putin, whilst at the same time we act to protect our British interests and our British allies in the Middle East."

He continued to confirm the mission had failed "because this Government completed our first duty".

The Kremlin also deployed a warship to escort two sanctioned tankers through the English Channel, in recent weeks.

The Admiral Grigorovich, a Black Sea Fleet frigate, travelled with the tankers as they cruised past the south coast, with a British naval vessel, RFA Tideforce, following close behind.

Sir Keir Starmer threatened last month to take action against the so-called Russian "shadow fleet", in which he authorised British special forces to storm and seize the vessels.

So far, Britain has not done so, leading Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to brand the PM as being "all mouth and no trousers on defence."

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