Man sets fire to check-in area at Milan's Malpensa airport

A busy Italian airport has been partially evacuated after a man set fire to a check-in area.

Video footage posted on social media shows chaotic scenes inside Terminal 1 of Milan's Malpensa airport as a fire rages at one of the desks while a man attacks digital screens before being detained.

A man has been arrested and the situation brought under control, according to the Lombardy Airports Association.

However, it warned of potential delays and cancellations to departures at the bustling tourist hub popular with Brits.

Smoke filled the terminal after the incident.

No injuries have been reported so far, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The incident happened around 11:00 local time (09:00 GMT), the paper said, with emergency services alerted to reports of an "agitated man" in the terminal.

BBC Verify has verified a two-minute video of the incident posted on social media, which shows a fire at a check-in desk as passengers flee the area.

A man then appears to use a hammer to bang on a wall with screens and a large advert near the fire, before another man approaches him shouting "get down". This man then hits him on the head with a fire extinguisher.

Others surround the suspect, who is then pinned to the ground, calling for police, and one of them throws what appears to be a hammer away.

It is as-yet unclear what may have incited the incident.

Fabiola Gomes, who filmed the video, told the BBC she was at the airport to collect a relative before seeing "fire everywhere" and a "boy with a hammer" who was hitting the counter.

She was "very scared", she added.

Pictures from the airport show huge queues of passengers waiting outside the terminal building as smoke fills the air inside.

Airport firefighters quickly tackled the blaze, but the heavy smoke meant the area had to be evacuated for "safety reasons", a spokesperson told Corriere della Sera, and said there had been no "significant disruption to air traffic".