Passengers travelling through Heathrow Airport faced delays and disruption on Tuesday after a suspicious bag prompted a full scale security alert.
The airport was forced to evacuate the entire check-in hall at Terminal 3 and passengers arriving on flights were stopped from crossing the border after police ordered a 100 metre cordon around the suspicious bag.
Sources claim the bag was stopped during routine x-ray screening. The bag was destined to be placed in the hold of an aircraft and was accompanied by a passenger at the time of the alert.
The x-ray screening room is used for baggage at both Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 passengers high resulted in check-in being suspended at both terminals because bags processed at T5, which is used by British Airways, could not be security screened.
The Metropolitan Police Service called in its elite EXPO unit and the security alert was cleared within an hour.
By that point, however, massive queues had already built up across Heathrow. The situation has been made worse because Terminal 4 remains shuttered from the pandemic and won’t reopen until June.
Passengers complained of being caught up in huge queues to get through immigration, while many complained about a lack of information provided by the airport.
Heathrow airport has been contacted for comment.
