London: Britain's second busiest airport Gatwick was today evacuated after a ‘suspect package' was found amid fears of more terror strikes as the dreaded ISIS claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.
“Due to an incident - the North Terminal has been evacuated as a precautionary measure. Extra staff on-site looking after passenger welfare,” the Airport said in a statement.
Sussex Police confirmed the north terminal was being evacuated “for the protection of the public” after a “suspicious object” was located at the airport this morning, the Express.co.uk reported.
The airport, Britain's second busiest, falls in West Sussex county of England, nearly 50 kilometres south of Central London.
The evacuation came hours after the horrific terror attacks that killed at least 127 people in the French capital, said to be the deadliest attacks in Europe since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Hundreds of people were photographed standing outside the airport in the rain after being told to leave the airport at around 10am GMT.
Passengers at the West Sussex airport were reportedly told to stay away from glass windows and pictures from those at the scene showed large crowds waiting outside in the rain.
The terminal has since been partially re-opened. UK airports and ports are currently on high alert following the terror attacks that shook France last night.
Unconfirmed reports circulating on Twitter suggested officers had arrested a man with a grenade or gun found in his bag.
The Telegraph quoted Ozay Booth, a 23-year-old web designer, as saying: “We were in the airport and then all of a sudden police started running and shouting ‘everyone get out, get out'.
“It was terrifying! Particularly after everything that happened yesterday.“They've put us all under a bus shelter but no-one's telling us anything. There must be 500 of us here but we don't know what's going on, it's awful.”
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