Marcel Hirscher capitalised on the absence of defending champion Ted Ligety to claim giant slalom gold in the FIS World Ski Championships, after a bizarre incident involving an air display team delayed the second run in St Moritz.

Hirscher and his fellow competitors were made to wait when a Swiss air force plane taking part in a training exercise struck a cable holding up a TV camera, which duly crashed to earth in the finish area.

Nobody was hurt, but the second run took place half an hour later than originally scheduled - with the operation of the chairlift briefly stopped for security reasons.

The incident failed to unsettle Hirscher, who had finished second to three-time champion Ligety - absent this year due to a back injury - in the last two World Championship giant slalom races.

Hirscher, who finished one hundredth of a second behind Luca Aerni in the Alpine combined earlier in the week, led after Friday's first run and did enough on his second effort to beat fellow Austrian Roland Leitinger.

Leif Kristian Haugen of Norway took bronze, ahead of team-mate Henrik Kristoffersen and another Austrian, Philipp Schoerghofer - who had been second to Hirscher after the opening run.

"The GS was the gold medal that I had yet to win so today's race had great meaning for me," said Hirscher, who has now won three individual world titles.

"I'm very thankful for this. I'm also really happy for Roland, he's worked hard for this and to share the podium."