Britain’s Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, was shut down early Friday for 24 hours after a major fire at an electricity substation cut power to the sprawling facility west of London, officials said.

Airport authorities said they “expect significant disruption” over the coming days, with hundreds of flights and thousands of passengers affected.

“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage,” the airport operator said in a statement on its website, adding it would be closed until just before midnight Friday (2359 GMT).

“Passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”

Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said Heathrow’s closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from the airport.

It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced.

French airline Air France said it was cancelling eight flights to and from London Heathrow, while flights to other UK airports were operating normally.

The group’s Dutch airline KLM said it canceled three return flights.

The long-haul carrier Emirates in Dubai, which has London as one of its top destinations, cancelled six round-trip flights to Heathrow.

Fire ‘unprecedented’

The London Fire Brigade said it deployed 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters to tackle the fire at a substation in Hayes, a nearby town in the London borough of Hillingdon, which caused the power outage.

Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne announced just after 8 am local time that the fire was under control.

“This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” Goulbourne said.

Source: France 24