Police say a ‘suspected prohibited item’ was discovered in luggage in the facility’s south terminal.

An explosives disposal team has been sent to London’s Gatwick Airport after a “suspected prohibited item” was discovered in luggage, police said, after a terminal was evacuated.

Sussex police said on Friday that a security cordon would remain in place around the airport’s south terminal and the explosive ordnance disposal team (EOD) was deployed “as a precaution”.

Gatwick Airport, the second busiest in Britain, evacuated a large part of the terminal in what it called a “security incident”.

Passengers were also being prevented from entering the building, airport authorities posted on social media platform X.

Police said there was significant traffic disruption in the area and advised people to avoid it.

Passenger Laurens Cook told Al Jazeera from Gatwick that there was “pandemonium in the air and everyone was rushing” when people were asked to clear out.

“We were moved to our departure gate and are sitting here waiting with no information on if our flight will take off or not. We have no idea when we are going to leave … nobody has disembarked from planes either,” Cook said.

The airport is located 48km (30 miles) south of London.

In a separate incident on Friday, police said they had carried out a controlled explosion after “a suspicious package” was found outside the United States embassy in London.

The Metropolitan Police conducted the explosion after setting up cordons near the high-security site in Nine Elms, just south of the River Thames.

“We can confirm that the ‘loud bang’ reported in the area a short time ago was a controlled explosion carried out by officers,” police said in a post on X.

“Enquiries are still ongoing and cordons will remain in place for the time being.”

The US embassy said that local authorities were investigating “a suspicious package” outside the building and that police had closed a nearby road “out of an abundance of caution”.