Disruption after fire alarm at Heathrow Airport

A fire alert at Heathrow Airport's air traffic control tower briefly forced flights to be diverted to other airports.

It "impacted operation of the airfield for a short while" on Wednesday afternoon, according to a Heathrow Airport spokesman.

A British Airways spokesman said: "As a result of the temporary closure of Heathrow Airport's air traffic control tower earlier this afternoon, a small number of flights from all airlines were forced to divert to alternative airports.

"We are doing all we can to keep any knock-on disruption to our services to a minimum and are sorry for the disruption to our customers' travel plans. "

A Heathrow Airport spokesman said: "Heathrow experienced a fire alarm activation that impacted the operation of the airfield for a short while. We apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused.

"Emergency services responded using our regular safety procedures, and our operations have started to resume."

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