London : Britain’s Heathrow Airport was shut on Friday after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out its power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.
Around 70 firefighters were tackling the blaze in the west of London, which also knocked out the area’s back-up power system, leading to a mass outage at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest and the world’s fifth-busiest airport.
It said the cause of the fire was not known. Energy Minister Ed Miliband said it did not appear to be foul play.
Heathrow said the airport, which was due to handle 1,351 flights during the day, flying up to 291,000 passengers, would stay closed until midnight as it was experiencing a significant power outage.
