A London Heathrow Airport tube and train station has been evacuated following a fire alarm going off triggering travel chaos that has left passengers despairing.
The alarm went off at the Terminal 5 station at the airport, stopping all services on the Heathrow Express and other transport lines. Travellers to the airport were caught in the midst of the chaos as it sounded.
The alarm went off shortly before 10am this morning leading to an 'emergency' evacuation of the train station at the terminal and the Elizabeth Line.
Weary travellers who had just gotten off their flights were promptly evacuated from the station and left with no way to get home, as incoming passengers hoping to fly out were left stranded, fearing they would miss their flights.
The Heathrow Express confirmed services were "part suspended" due to the fire alarm that meant no trains would stop at the station until further notice.
The new Elizabeth Line was also evacuated at the terminal, with passengers taken off the carriages and removed from the station.
One traveller, Mark Abrahams, who had just returned from a week abroad for business on a nine-hour flight, complained that after being directed out the station they were abandoned by staff with no help to get home.
The passenger, who had been eager to get home after having been away for a week, said travellers were left in the dark as to the nature of the emergency.
Mark told the Mirror: "I was sat waiting to depart on the Elizabeth line and noticed that the emergency alarm and announcement was muffled and unclear from inside the carriage with the doors closed - it only became clear to me that the station was being evacuated because I left the carriage."
He said that staff on the tube line made no effort to help speed up the evacuation and once the passengers got outside they were as good as abandoned by staff.
He continued: "I asked one staff member wearing a hi box jkt what we were meant to do and he just replied ‘I don’t know mate, I just work the buses’"
The airport's Terminal remained open throughout and the tube and train station have since been reopened but a spokesperson for TFL told the Mirror that there was severe delays on the Piccadilly Line between the two Heathrow terminals.
