Parts of Heathrow Airport were briefly locked down on Sunday morning after what appeared to be pepper spray was used during a fight in one of the airport’s parking garages, the police said.
According to the Metropolitan Police, officers were called to a parking garage at Terminal 3 in Heathrow around 8 a.m. on Sunday, when a group of people began fighting, with at least one of them eventually using what appeared to be a pepper spray-style gas.
Several people inhaled the substance, the police said, and some were taken to the hospital with what the police described as non-life-changing and non-life-threatening injuries.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assault, the police said, adding that they were searching for more suspects. The episode was not being treated as terrorism, the police said.
“At this stage, we believe the incident involved a group of people known to each other, with an argument escalating and resulting in a number of people being injured,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
The episode caused a brief but high-stakes security frenzy at Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest travel hubs, as train lines in and out of the airport were stopped for more than an hour, and officers halted car and foot traffic into and out of certain parts of the complex.
The airport has shut down multiple times in the past year. In March, a fire at a London substation cut off power to the hub and sent a ripple of travel disruptions across the world. In July, a radar issue disrupted flights across Britain, including out of Heathrow.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in Belfast.
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