Departures from London Stansted Airport have been suspended after a fire in one of the departure lounges.
The fire started in the Escape Lounge at about 3.30am, and while the airport says it was extinguished quickly, the blaze produced a large amount of smoke.
Passengers were evacuated ‘as a precaution’ and also stopped from entering security, which was closed for about three hours and reopened at 6am.
The latest update from Stansted says: ‘Following the partial evacuation caused by a fire in our Escape Lounge, security has now reopened.
‘Due to the number of passengers in the area, it may take longer than usual to pass through and we apologize for any inconvenience.
‘Please check the status of your flight with your airline.
‘We thank passengers for their patience as we worked with the emergency services to ensure the terminal was safe to fully reopen.’
Departures have been suspended until ‘later this morning’, the airport said, with passengers advised to contact their airline for more information.
A spokesperson for London Stansted said: ‘Health and safety will always be our number one priority and we thank passengers for their understanding.’
To add further chaos to travel around Stansted Airport this morning, there’s a signalling fault which means all train lines running to and from the airport are blocked.
Trains could be cancelled or delayed.
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@usnewsrank.com. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow usnewsrank.com on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get usnewsrank.com articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.
Discover more from USNewsRank
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.