Around 100 firefighters tackled a blaze which broke out shortly after 1.00pm on Friday at a large single storey warehouse at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Some 200 people were evacuated from the Servisair cargo facility and a 400m exclusion zone was set up around the site. No one was hurt in the fire and in spite of a large black plume of smoke billowing over the airport, flights were able to operate as normal.

Most of the 100m x 50m warehouse was destroyed in the fire according to London Fire Brigade.

Servisair was unable to confirm whether or not the building was fitted with an automatic fire suppression system.

A BBC report said a fire in a forklift truck was believed to have started the blaze but this has not been confirmed by London Fire Brigade, who say that the investigation into the cause is continuing.