Flights that were due to land at Gatwick have been diverted to various UK airports. Here are the latest figures on where those flights have gone:

Heathrow - No figures yet

Southend - Three EasyJet flights landed last night

Luton - Seven flights landed last night. Five EasyJet flights, an Aer Lingus flight and a WizzAir were diverted

Stansted - Eleven flights landed at Stansted last night. Six EasyJet flights were diverted. BA, Aer Lingus, TUI and Norwegian flights were among the affected flights. The latest flight was at 01:30 GMT on Thursday morning.

Manchester - Seven flights in total. Five overnight. Two flights landed this morning. A mix of EasyJet, Virgin Atlantic, Norwegian and TUI airlines

Birmingham - Seven flights overall

Bristol - No figures yet

Cardiff - Eight flights so far. Four EasyJet flights arrived last night. Four British Airway flights landed this morning.

London City - No flights

Theresa May's official spokesman said that the drone activity at Gatwick was "irresponsible and completely unacceptable".

He added: "These drones have been flown illegally and the law couldn't be clearer that those found endangering aircraft could face up to five years in jail.

"We are in close contact with Gatwick Airport as they work with police to safely resolve the situation as quickly as possible."

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Geoffrey Grove, 42, is stranded on a plane at Orly airport in France after his flight from Boston in the US.

Passengers have been on the runway at Orly since 08:05 GMT and are not being allowed to disembark there.

“There is no air conditioning," he told the BBC. "Babies are being stripped because it is so hot.

“Airplane staff cracked the doorway for some ventilation but once the pilot was able to get the ground crew to get the a/c working the temperature got much much better.

“We are trying to get to the Swiss alps. So this will definitely slow things down. The unfortunate thing is the utter waste of time just sitting on the plane for four hours.

“The crew are doing as good a job as possible with limited resources.”

Image source, Geoffrey Grove

The BBC's Technology Correspondent Chris Foxx said there are some "left field" ways for the authorities to bring drones down:

"At the more Star Wars end of things, you can use a laser to fire down drones.

"You don't really want to be shooting missiles near airports, especially if there are planes coming into land.

"Boeing is one company that has been testing a laser that can track a drone, heat up the battery and cause it to set on fire to bring it down. We saw that in 2015.

"There's also more unusual things where you can send out a bigger drone with a net and have it deploy the net to catch the smaller drone that's causing the nuisance."

Easyjet passenger Andrew Pearson is stuck at the airport in Malta.

"I'm confused. Easyjet last updated their details four hours ago and they told me to come to the airport and check in at my regular time, which I did. But nobody can now tell me what's happening or what I should do.

"It's difficult isn't it because if they said go to another airport I'd take that on an emotional level because at least I'd be in the UK. But actually it would probably make more sense to stay here and fly back tomorrow.

"It's the lack of information, the not knowing, it makes it difficult to know what to do for the best."

A university professor on the legal issues surrounding drones says that the Gatwick incident suggests changes in the law would not be enough to prevent further problems occurring.

Dr Alan McKenna, of the University’s Kent Law School, said that although the incident will prompt calls for further legal restrictions, it is likely electronic solutions will be required to prevent other incidents in the future.

Dr McKenna has been an expert in a Drone Public Dialogue event organised on behalf of the Ministry of Defence and Department of Transport that is being used to help develop Government drone policies. He is also a member of Kent Police's Drone Development Board.

British Airways passenger Guglielmo Volpe told the BBC:

"My wife and I booked to fly to Verona for Christmas this morning. Just as we arrived at the airport the BA app informed us the flight was cancelled.

"Through the BA app we were able to rebook for the Saturday flight when we still were at the airport. Then got the train back to London! So, all in all, considering the circumstances we felt things could have been much worse!"

Yulia Hristova, who was meant to fly to Istanbul via Kiev at 03:00 GMT and has been at the airport since midnight, described her experience at Gatwick as an "emotional disaster".

"With two kids I'm in a difficult position," she said. "I'm so tired, I'm so upset, we've had no information.

"We were standing for hours, nobody's been on the desk. It was so cold. We were sleeping on the floor, me and my children.

"I lost my son during the night, and a policeman brought him back.

"It's been an emotional disaster.

"I'm so exhausted, I don't want to stress out but it's very worrying. What's going to happen to us in Ukraine? What if we run out of money? Are the airline going to put us in a hotel?

"I want to give up right now, it's making me so anxious."

Image source, Reuters

Chris Hammond from the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has told BBC Sussex:

"If you think of it as a large bird made up of dense plastic and metal in the battery, the aircraft can be doing 200mph minimum on take off, more on approach and landing. Whatever speed the drone is doing, add them together, it can do an awful lot of damage.

"We did tests two years ago on what could happen and it was pretty horrendous. Large airliners aren't so bad because they've got armoured windscreens, but smaller planes and helicopters, the drones can go through them and cause damage to the pilots

"The important thing is to catch whoever has done this and very visibly sentence them, £5,000 fine, five years in jail or whatever, but the first thing is catching them."

Simran Bhakoo, from Essex, was hoping to fly with her family to Lanzarote for Christmas, but that flight has been delayed.

She tells the BBC: "I'm with my parents, brother, my one-year-old nephew, my sister, her husband, and his parents.

"Our flight with Tui was leaving at 9.30 and we've been at the airport since 6.30.

"We checked in our bags and tried to go through security but it was shut off as it's too crowded on the other side.

"All we know is that flights have been suspended due to drones and that safety is of the upmost importance.

"We're sitting on the floor, trying to keep the little one entertained."

Image source, EPA

Passengers unable to travel from Gatwick Airport speak to the Victoria Derbyshire programme about their experience:

Thousands of people are stuck at Gatwick Airport, which has suspended flights due to drones flying nearby.

Katie Herring, 30, is on a plane on the runway at Newcastle Airport, after her flight from St Kitts to London was diverted.

She and her family have been travelling for 16 hours.

She tells the BBC: “We were not allowed to de-plane and there is no food or drink on offer. I managed to get a glass of water to take some pills with but the cabin crew are now nowhere to be seen.

“It's tricky as well because I'm disabled so sitting for extended periods of time is detrimental.

“I could get up and stretch on the flight but the aisles are pretty full of people doing just that so I'm at risk of getting knocked over."

Passengers have complained of having to sleep in "freezing" conditions at Gatwick's South Terminal.

Andri Kyprianou got to the airport at 00:30 for a 03:00 flight to Cyprus via Kiev, only to find it had been cancelled and the next connection in Kiev is on Sunday.

She said: "I haven't slept since yesterday morning, we are very tired. It's freezing, we are cold, having to wear all of these coats for extra blankets.

"There were pregnant women, one of them was sleeping on the floor.

"There were people with small babies in here overnight, we saw disabled people on chairs.

"There were young children sleeping on the floor."