British Airways: Flights from Heathrow and Gatwick cancelled after airline's computer systems crash

Flights leaving two major London airports have been cancelled after British Airways' (BA) computers shut down worldwide - causing chaos for holidaymakers.

People are being warned to stay away from Gatwick and Heathrow Airport following Saturday morning's computer system failure.

A spokesman for British Airways said all flights before 6pm had been cancelled.

Some passengers have claimed they were told by staff that the airline had been hit by a cyber attack, though BA said it found "no evidence" of a hacking.

Domestic and international flights are being affected by the outage.

A British Airways spokesman said: "We have experienced a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide.

"The terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick have become extremely congested and we have cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick before 6pm UK time today, so please do not come to the airports.

"We will provide more information on ba.com, Twitter and through airport communication channels as soon as we can for flights due to depart after that time.

"We will be updating the situation via the media regularly throughout the day.

"We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."

Numerous passengers took to social media on Saturday morning to complain about the outage and reported huge queues at check in counters.

Workers at the airport have also reportedly had to write gate information on white boards.

A Heathrow Airport spokesman said: "We are working closely with the airline to assist passengers who have been affected by the British Airways' issue and have extra customer service colleagues in terminals to assist those passengers already at Heathrow."

The outage comes as thousands of people prepare to leave the UK for Bank Holiday celebrations, with numerous travellers taking to social media to vent their frustration at the cancellations.

Melissa Davis, who runs a legal PR agency in London, was held for more than an hour and a half on the tarmac at Heathrow, on a BA flight returning from Belfast.

Speaking from the plane, Miss Davis said the air conditioning had been off "so I don't think we will be going anywhere any time soon", but added that the passengers had been kept informed by their pilot and given water while they remained seated.

She later said she and others were then told they could not transfer to other flights because "they can't bring up our details".

Passengers at Gatwick Airport faced chaotic scenes and long queues due to a baggage system problem on Friday.

Those taking flights were forced to travel without their hold bags and were asked to carry any essential items in their hand luggage.