THOUSANDS of passengers at Stansted Airport faced "chaos" today after a passenger triggered the fire alarm by smoking an e-cigarette in a toilet.
The departures hall at the Essex airport temporarily shut down following the alert at 6am today.
Crowds of passengers were held outside the entrance while the cause was investigated.
Passenger Tom Orrell tweeted: “Chaos at @STN_Airport as fire alarm blares.
“No crowd control. Ppl entering through one door as we're ferried out another."
The incident happened at about 6am and lasted about 15 minutes.
A Stansted spokesman said: "A smoke detector was briefly activated in a toilet near to the departure lounge at 5.59 this morning.
"Passengers were held back from entering security for 15 minutes following the alarm activation.
"We believe the smoke alarm was set off due to an individual using an e-cigarette in a toilet.
"We apologies for any inconvenience caused by the alarm but our priority will always be to take the necessary and appropriate actions to investigation any activation to ensure the safety of passengers and staff is maintained at all times ."
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