A promising student who was due to be deported to her native Mauritius appears to have been given a last-minute reprieve.

Yashika Bageerathi, 19, was at Gatwick Airport awaiting deportation when she was returned to a detention centre, her headteacher said.

The move appears to represent at least a temporary U-turn, although the Home Office refused to comment on individual cases.

The teenager, who lost an appeal last Wednesday, fled Mauritius with her mother and brother in 2012 to escape a relative who had been physically abusing her.

She was due to fly back this afternoon, having been in detention at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre, Bedfordshire, since Wednesday.

But Lynne Dawes, headteacher at Oasis Academy Hadley in Enfield, north London, said the teenager told her she was on her way back to the centre.

Ms Dawes added that Ms Bageerathi's solicitors were told at the Upper Tribunal that the order to remove the teenager had been "cancelled" although it is not clear what the next step is.

It comes after extensive campaigning by her fellow pupils, who used social media and demonstrations to protest against the decision to send Ms Bageerathi back.

A petition by the students calling on Immigration Minister James Brokenshire and Home Secretary Theresa May to stop the deportation and allow the student to complete her A-levels garnered nearly 23,000 signatures on change.org.

Model Cara Delevingne also made a plea on Twitter to Mrs May not to send the aspiring maths teacher back.

As well as the pupils' online campaign, Ms Dawes and the student's mother met their MP, David Burrowes, on Friday, who then made representations to the Home Office to delay Ms Bageerathi's deportation yesterday.

Ms Bageerathi was due to be sent back alone because she is considered an adult and her case is considered separately from her family.

The teenager was first detained at Yarl's Wood in December but bailed 42 days later after Ms Dawes put money up for her release.

A Home Office spokeswoman refused to comment on the case.

According to Mr Burrowes, the Home Office said British Airways (BA) refused to take Ms Bageerathi on the plane but neither BA nor the Home Office would comment on this claim.

The MP for Enfield Southgate added that the decision to remove the teenager would have had to be delayed regardless because "the minister has to consider my representation before removal. He hasn't yet done that and that has to happen before she goes".

Mr Burrowes said no flight had been booked for Ms Bageerathi on a later date and the issue to address now was whether she would be released on bail while they consider her case.

He added: "The Home Office will now consider all the options: whether she should be removed, all the circumstances and whether to consider her as part of her family rather than cutting her off from her family."

He described the decision to remove the student alone as "unfair and disproportionate" and said she should be able to continue her studies, but he was confident that her case would be considered in its entirety by the Home Office.

Despite the uncertainty of what will happen next, the MP said it was "very welcome news and the right decision" not to send her back.