Manama: Bahrain's airport police have arrested an Asian passenger with 136 capsules in his stomach.

"Anti-drug trafficking officials had doubts about one Asian passenger, but a thorough search of his belongings and a bodily search yielded nothing," the interior ministry said on Friday.

"He was subsequently transferred to a hospital where an abdominal X-ray detected the existence of foreign objects in his stomach," the ministry said.

The 136 capsules containing the heroin were eventually recovered, the police said, adding that they weighed around one kilogramme and had a street value of $251,000 (Dh923,680).