Manchester Airport passengers face long queues after evacuation
- Published
Passengers faced long queues to get back into the building after the evacuation
Passengers described facing "chaos" with long queues and delays after part of Manchester Airport was evacuated.
People were told to leave Terminal Three by armed police and the fire service at about 06:00 BST on Thursday.
Passenger Luke Thompson said "huge" numbers of people were waiting to be let back in through security.
The airport said a fire alarm had been sounded by staff "as a safety precaution" and travellers were back inside within 30 minutes.
The airport declined to explain the reason for sounding the alarm.
"A fire alarm process is disruptive to those impacted but safety is paramount," a spokesman said.
Travellers have been experiencing disruption due to cancellations and long waits at the airport since March, which the organisation said was down to a lack of staff and a spike in demand.
Luke Thompson, from Warrington, described the scenes on Thursday as "total chaos".
"I was waiting at the front of the security queue when a big loud speaker came on which said an incident had occurred and staff told us to leave," he said.
Passenger Luke Thompson described the queues as "total chaos"
The 25-year-old, who was due to get on a flight at 07:45, said he and others were waiting outside for an hour.
"Now I am at the back of a huge, huge queue - which is so much longer than before."
Kelsey-Anne Grady, who was booked on a 06:30 flight, said the airport had delayed flights for those stuck at security.
"We made it because we were fast-tracked through," she told the BBC.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Greater Manchester Police said a member of the public activated it the alarm by mistake and there was a routine evacuation.
An airport spokesman said: "The evacuation was not for long at all and people were back inside within 30 minutes of being asked to leave."
Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, external, Twitter, external and Instagram, external? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
Related topics
- Published6 July 2022
- Published1 July 2022
- Published1 June 2022
- Published30 May 2022
- Published17 March 2022
- Published9 May 2022
- Published30 May 2022
- Published30 May 2022
