Massive lightning strikes disrupt flights at London Airport

LONDON: Huge lightning strikes reportedly hit the UK during a powerful overnight thunderstorm, disrupting flights at London Airport after an aircraft refueling system was damaged on Sunday.

According to reports, lightning strike disabled the fueling system at London Stansted Airport for a period on Sunday morning. Engineers have been on site and have restored the system, however flights may still be subject to diversion, delay or cancellation.

Thunderstorms and torrential rain have swept across parts of southern Britain, with lightning flashing across the sky. Around 15,000 lightning strikes were recorded in four hours on Saturday night.

More than 200 flights were delayed at Stansted. Another 31 departures and 18 arrivals were cancelled, according media citing FlightStats, which provides data on commercial aviation.

London-area airports were busier than usual, since Britain is in the middle of a long holiday weekend, and many schoolchildren also have a half-term break this coming week.

While, 1,000 properties had been left without power across the Midlands, with the majority of outages down to lightning.