Gatwick Airport terminal reopen after security alert

London's Gatwick Airport, the second busiest airport in Britain, reopened a terminal after a security alert earlier in the day forced its evacuation and caused travel disruption for thousands of people.

Police sent a bomb disposal team to deal with a suspected prohibited item that they said had been found in luggage at the airport's south terminal, 30 miles south ofLondon.

"The earlier security alert has now been resolved and cleared by police," Gatwick said in a statement. "The south terminal is reopening to staff and will be open to passengers shortly."

The incident disrupted weekend travel plans for thousands of passengers, with more than 600 flights due to land or take off on from Gatwick, amounting to more than 121,000 passenger seats, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Thousands of passengers were seen outside the terminal and the surrounding area in videos posted online after the terminal's hut for several hours.

Emergency foil blankets were distributed to some of the passengers who were waiting in the cold, social media pictures showed.

In a separate incident earlier, London police carried out a controlled explosion near the US embassy in south London after discovering a suspect package.

The embassy has since returned to normal operations, it said in a statement.

"The US Embassy is back to normal business operations, except all public appointments... for 22 November have been cancelled," the embassy said on X.

Police later said they believed it was a hoax.