Dozens of flights have been delayed at Heathrow Airport after emergency services evacuated a terminal earlier this morning.
Travelers are facing delays of well over an hour for their flights to take off after police descended on Terminal 2 following reports of a ‘suspicious item that needed to be checked out’.
Hundreds of passengers were forced to evacuate the building and, while the incident has now been resolved, passengers are facing ‘pandemonium’ with huge queues to get past security checks.
Videos show crowds as far as they eye can see in parts of the airport, while there were also reports of a ‘crush’ of people when the terminal was reopened.
The travel chaos has sparked fears among England supporters who are looking to travel to Germany in time for the Three Lions’ Euros quarter final match on Saturday.
Pictures show queues of passengers as far as the eye can see at Terminal 2 in Heathrow following a bomb scare at the airport
One passenger showed this picture of huge queues to get past security checks
Travelers took to X to air their frustrations about the ongoing situation, with some claiming they had been waiting in queues for over forty minutes.
Michael Barraclough said: ‘Big up everyone squeezing through to the front of the throng outside Heathrow terminal 2, you’re definitely going to get through, the rest of us stood here waiting for 40+ minutes are clearly just doing it for lolz’
Ronan Murphy added that it had taken him four hours after departing Heathrow Express to get to passport control.
Another frustrated passengers wrote: ‘Heathrow Terminal 2 is out of control, how can we make it to the flight??’
Rok Stergar added: ‘Well, the lines at Heathrow are never-ending, so it remains to be seen how my travel will go.’
The chaos at the airport ensued following reports of a ‘suspicious item that needed to be checked out’, the Metropolitan Police said.
‘The force added it has now completed its checks and ‘the incident has been stood down’.
Earlier this morning images showed emergency vehicles parked outside and police with sniffer dogs roaming around the building.
People have described the queues as being ‘out of control’ after facing huge delays for their flights
Holidaymakers have been seen packing the halls of Heathrow after emergency services evacuated Terminal 2
Images shared on social media have showed crowds of people amassed inside the airport
Images also showed emergency vehicles parked outside the airport earlier on Friday morning
Other images also show police with sniffer dogs roaming around the outside of the airport
Mark Pusey, 44, from west London, was at the airport for his journey to Leipzig, Germany, but now fears he will miss his connecting flight from Frankfurt.
He said: ‘They shut the terminal and nobody will tell us why.
‘It is pandemonium in some of the terminals – people are running all over the place.
‘There is just a complete lack of information. Nobody has said anything. Every time I ask staff a question they reply with ‘I can’t tell you’.
‘It is chaos – lots of people are running around. There was one guy who was happy to lose his bag and try to make his flight than wait around and potentially miss it.’
Mark added: ‘When they finally opened the terminal up there was people getting crushed and stood on. People were leaving their partners behind to get on escalators.
‘It was frantic and it just seemed like nobody was really in control or in charge. There were no announcements, nothing.’
Although Mark’s flight has currently only been delayed by 20 minutes, he now fears that he will miss his connecting flight on the other side.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘This morning our teams worked with emergency services to respond to an incident in Terminal 2 which has now been resolved.
‘We ask passengers to check with their airline if flying from Terminal 2, the rest of the airport is operating normally.’
