Fire forces London airport to cancel all Friday night departures

(Image: Essex County Fire and Rescue Service)

A FIRE at London’s Stansted Airport resulted in all outbound flights, including those to Ireland, being cancelled this evening.

Bosses at the airport have apologised and urged passengers to re-book flights with their respective airlines.

According to Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, a bus parked outside the terminal entrance caught fire.

The bus was completely destroyed, while the front of the terminal building suffered damage.

The terminal was partially evacuated while the fire was extinguished.

Fire officials believe the blaze was caused by an electrical fault on the bus.

No one was injured in the fire.

#ADVISORY All departing flights until midnight have now been cancelled and passengers are politely asked to leave the Airport. We apologise for the inconvenience and advise you to re-book your flight with the airline.

— Stansted Airport (@STN_Airport) March 30, 2018

While the airline initially claimed it was looking to resume normal service and re-screen passengers, it later tweeted to say all outbound flights had been cancelled.

On social media, passengers criticised the handling of the incident, with long queues reported at the airport's train stop, which serves the Stansted Express.

Several passengers described the scenes at the airport as chaotic.

Big questions over handling of Stansted Airport fire today. Stranded passengers reported poor safety procedures, overcrowding, broken communication systems and chaos. Many flights cancelled. #StanstedAirport #stansted pic.twitter.com/55gsnMDuJ7

— DrCurlyMeninges (@CurlyMeninges) March 30, 2018

Chaos at Stansted airport. One coach fire and the whole airport is completely shut down. Three officials all giving three different answers. Absolutely rubbish UK response as usual to any problem

— Mike Phillips (@MikeyPhil64) 30 March 2018

Trying desperately to keep a sense of humour after getting caught up in the chaos at Stansted... but when you are spoken to like you’re an idiot, it’s hard https://t.co/mmtaeRCXA1

— Donna Ferguson (@DonnaLFerguson) 30 March 2018

I honestly don't know who made all the calls tonight at #Stansted but that was so poorly managed. Bloody chaos and putting people through so much hell for nothing. No one got to fly! A bus caught on fire outside the building. Why did everything else fall apart?! pic.twitter.com/tfKkvRH9C8

— SFW (@cinnamonwalsh) March 30, 2018

The queue after an hour trying to get out of the train station at #Stansted - still here, no information pic.twitter.com/568shbVds1

— Martin Harris (@MartinHarris71) March 30, 2018

Staff and passengers leaving #Stansted via any route necessary such is the chaos here pic.twitter.com/qQPb859Cpt

— Martin Harris (@MartinHarris71) March 30, 2018

Passengers capture dramatic footage of blaze at Stansted

View from inside the Terminal of a coach Fire at London Stansted Airport pic.twitter.com/q24f6Q4UHe

— Flight Alerts ⚠ (@FlightAlerts777) March 30, 2018