A huge fire broke out on Wednesday night in a parking garage at London Luton Airport, which partially collapsed. Air traffic at the airport north of the British capital was suspended until noon on Wednesday.
The measure also affects flights from Budapest, as Wizz Air operates several daily scheduled flights to Luton from Liszt Ferenc International Airport, the first of which departs in the morning.
According to the fire department, a vehicle caught fire on the upper level of parking garage number two near the passenger hall, and the flames quickly spread to several other cars.
According to the information on Wednesday morning, fifteen units are participating in the extinguishing, but half of the building part was completely covered by the fire, and the upper building structure collapsed in a large area. Firefighters worked to prevent the fire from spreading to the interior of the airport, the report states.
A statement from the airport this morning said that all air traffic to Luton was suspended until 12 noon UK time on Wednesday – 1pm CET. Early morning flights were diverted to other UK airports including Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Gatwick.
The ambulance took four firefighters and an airport employee to the hospital due to smoke inhalation.
Luton is one of the five major international airports serving London, with passenger traffic exceeding 13 million last year. Significant development and expansion investments have been made at the airport in recent years, and the new parking garage, which has now partially burned down, was built at the same time.
(MTI)