Flights resume at London Stansted after bus fire

Flights resumed at London's Stansted airport today after a shuttle bus fire forced the cancellation of flights as the busy Easter long weekend got under way.

The fire outside the terminal entrance started at 4:20pm (local time) yesterday and was completely extinguished by 5:00pm (local time).

Departures at Britain's fourth-busiest airport, 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of London, were scrapped for the rest of yesterday but all flights resumed as normal today.

The blaze was caused by an electrical fault in the bus engine. The bus was completely destroyed. The driver was the only person on board and nobody was injured.

"In total, around 100 flights were either delayed, diverted or cancelled," a Stansted spokesman told AFP.

Around half of those were thought to have been cancelled and roughly 10,000 people were thought to have been affected.

"Airlines are looking to put in some additional flights today to make up for some of the ones that were cancelled, in addition to rebooking passengers onto any available seats today and the rest of the weekend," the spokesman said.

Seen from inside the airport terminal, the blaze looked like a wall a flames, while outside, thick black smoke billowed into the air.

People inside the building were moved airside away from the fire, meaning passengers who had not gone through security were mixed with those who had. Flights were then cancelled.