"Due to an incident - the North Terminal has been evacuated as a precautionary measure. Extra staff on-site looking after passenger welfare," the Airport said in a statement.
Sussex Police confirmed the north terminal was being evacuated "for the protection of the public" after a "suspicious object" was located at the airport, the Express.Co.Uk reported.
The airport, Britain's second busiest, is nearly 50 kilometres south of Central London.
The evacuation came hours after the horrific terror attacks that killed at least 127 people in the French capital, said to be the deadliest attacks in Europe since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Unconfirmed reports circulating on Twitter suggested officers had arrested a man with a grenade or gun found in his bag.
The Telegraph quoted Ozay Booth, a 23-year-old web designer, as saying: "We were in the airport and then all of a sudden police started running and shouting 'everyone get out, get out'.
"It was terrifying! Particularly after everything that happened yesterday.
"They've put us all under a bus shelter but no-one's telling us anything. There must be 500 of us here but we don't know what's going on, it's awful.
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