Heathrow Airport faced significant disruption this morning after a major emergency response was triggered at Terminal 3. 

Shortly after 10am, multiple emergency services arrived to the airport’s multi-storey car park following reports of an incident.

“When anybody sees anything like this and sees armed police at airports, terrorism is the first thing to mind,” said London-based TV and radio correspondent Olly Barratt, who had been reporting from the scene and joined The Anton Savage Show.

“It doesn’t look like that’s the case,” he said.

“Police were very quick this morning to effectively tell the public that they didn’t believe that there was any terrorism aspect to this,” said the reporter.

According to police, the incident began when officers were called to an “incident in the multi-story car park at Terminal three,” where “some kind of pepper spray [was] reported to have been sprayed at a group of people.”

He confirmed:

“One person has been arrested on suspicion of assault.”

“Police say that what they think was happening here was some kind of argument that escalated between groups of people that knew each other,” Barratt reported. 

While one person has been detained, “police are looking for several further suspects who they believe fled the scene,” he added.

Transport impact easing

The emergency response initially led to significant congestion around the airport. 

Aer Lingus Airbus A320-214 plane lands at Heathrow Airport in West London, © PA Archive/PA Images

“You pointed to the traffic and travel disruption that was caused by this incident in the first place,” Barratt said, speaking from just beneath one of Heathrow’s main bypasses. 

“Both are running as normal at the moment.”

Train services also experienced delays, though lines have since reopened: 

“The train lines saw some initial disruption as well, but they’ve reopened now as well, with some delays still being experienced.”

Police say they do not believe the incident is connected to terrorism or protest activity, though their enquiries are continuing.

Written by Annemarie Roberts