London airspace closed due to air traffic control failure

Airspace over London has been closed due to a computer failure, European air traffic control body Eurocontrol said on Friday.

NATS, Britain's national air traffic service, said it suffered a technical problem at its air traffic control center in Swanwick, southern England.

"We apologize for any delays and our incident response team has been mobilized," NATS said.

London's main Heathrow airport said that no flights were taking off or landing. Gatwick airport, which also serves London, said no flights were taking off although flights were arriving.

Manchester airport in northern England said it was unaffected by the airspace closure and was ready to accept diverted flights.

The BBC said that the airspace closure was expected to last until 1900 GMT.