A power outage has brought a major airport to a grinding halt as passengers crowd inside the terminal building. Stansted Airport in Essex has suffered a malfunctioning of nearly all its systems, including security, check-in desks and baggage conveyor belts.

       Bosses at the airport have apologised for the inconvenience caused, but travellers have been caught up in such chaos that some have reported missed flights. Pictures from passengers show wall-to-wall of people waiting to collect luggage in what is assumed to be arrivals.

       A spokesman for Stansted said: "Apologies for any inconvenience caused. We are experiencing an ongoing partial power outage that is affecting a number of airport systems, including check-in, security and baggage."

       An official statement said that power had been resumed but that teams were "working hard to get systems back up and running as quickly as possible."

       It confirmed that flights are operating as usual, but warned passengers to arrive at the airport with plenty of time.

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