London Luton Airport (LTN), the UK’s fifth busiest airport, has announced the suspension of all its flights until 3pm on Wednesday 11 October after a blaze engulfed one of the airport's multi-storey car parks, containing over 1,200 vehicles.
According to an official statement by the airport, emergency services were called to the scene as the blaze ripped through the car park leading to a “partial structural collapse”.
Located 35 miles north of Central London, the airport’s flight suspensions is expected to affect around 30,000 passengers, with some flights diverted to other UK airports.
As reported by the UK newspaper Independent, a total of 170 flights were cancelled during the incident, which lasted from Tuesday night until Wednesday morning.
LTN along with the Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Services have instructed travellers not to travel to the airport until further notice. The airport is providing updates on its website, here.
Andrew Hopkinson, chief fire officer for Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, disclosed the source of the fire this morning.
Hopkinson said: "We have no intelligence at this stage to suggest that this was anything other than an accidental fire that started in one of the vehicles that had not long arrived at the airport. It was not an EV. This was a diesel-powered vehicle”.
The Bedfordshire Fire Department also announced at 10:12 am that fire services have now "scaled back" from LTN and that this is no longer considered a "major incident," following the discharge of a number of agencies from the scene.
