There was an explosion and a fire outbreak at the Heathrow Airport on Thursday with counter-terror officers from the Metropolitan Police are leading an investigation.
The incident resulted in the closure of the airport which is the busiest in the United Kingdom.
The Met Police said there was “currently no indication of foul play” but officers were retaining an “open mind at this time” into the cause of the blaze.
Flights have been cancelled, people evacuated from their homes and local schools shut down after two explosions and a fire at an electrical substation in Hayes, west London on Thursday night.
The airport has warned of “significant disruption” over the coming days and told passengers not to travel under any circumstances until it reopens.
A police spokesperson said its Counter Terrorism Command was leading the investigation due to “the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure”.
They added the command has the “specialist resources and capabilities” to progress the investigation “at pace to minimise disruption and identify the cause”.
Emergency services were first called to the scene at 23:20 GMT, and video shared on social media showed tall flames and smoke billowing from the substation overnight.
London Fire Brigade (LFB), which is also taking part in the investigation, said the fire involved a transformer containing 25,000 litres (5,500 gallons) of cooling fluid, which had been set alight.
Thousands of homes in the area were left without power as a result, as well as the airport.
National Grid said on X while it had restored power to 62,000 customers by 06:00, some 4,900 homes remained without power.
At least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow will be affected on Friday, flight tracking website Flightradar24 said on X, with some 120 affected aircraft already in the air when the closure was announced.
The Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was an unprecedented event which “appears to have knocked out a back-up generator as well as a substation itself”.
Asked on BBC Breakfast how such a busy transport hub was able to be so severely disrupted by a fire at an electrical substation, he replied: “It’s too early to answer that question. We don’t know the cause of this fire.”
He said the government would want to understand the causes and “what lessons, if any, it can teach us”.
Ruth Cadbury, chair of the Commons Transport Committee, said the issue “does raise questions about infrastructure resilience”.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, announced it would commission a review “to understand the cause of this incident and what lessons can be learned”.
Ten fire engines and about 70 firefighters were sent to tackle the inferno, LFB said, with the fire being brought under control by 06:30.
A 200m (656 ft) cordon has been put in place as a precaution, and local residents have been advised to keep doors and windows closed because of a “significant amount of smoke”.
The brigade, which received nearly 200 calls about the Heathrow Airport fire, added it led 29 people to safety from nearby properties.
A group of residents who were evacuated from their homes gathered at a nearby Premier Inn but said there had been little communication overnight, leaving them confused about where to go.
Vaneca Sinclair, 64, said she was “getting ready to go to bed” when “suddenly there was this huge bang and the house just shook”.
“I thought maybe someone had crashed into the wall or something and then opened the front door… and there were just these flames everywhere down at the bottom of the road.”
She described the scene as “unbelievable – the flames and the smoke and everything… it was just scary”.
Ms Sinclair said police later told them to return home and grab essentials before evacuating, but no-one told them where to gather and eventually they walked to the hotel where they could have hot drinks and use the toilets.
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