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All flights at London City Airport cancelled following discovery of World War 2 bomb

British Airways airplanes are seen on the runway with the towers and buildings of the Canary Wharf financial district in background before taking off at London City Airport in London on October 27, 2017. British Airways parent group IAG forecast on October 27 a 20-percent jump in operating profit this year thanks to rising demand and falling costs. Operating profit before exceptional items, and at current fuel prices and exchange rates, was forecast to hit 3.0 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in 2017, IAG said in an statement. That was up from 2.5 billion euros in 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

ALL FLIGHTS coming in and going out of London City Airport are cancelled today after an unexploded bomb tracing back to World War 2 was discovered in the River Thames, close to the airport’s runway.

The device was discovered in King George V Dock during planned works early yesterday morning and is now being dealt with by specialist police officers working alongside the Royal Navy.

The decision was made at about 10 pm last night to implement a 214-metre exclusion zone around the airport, and to evacuate properties in the area.

The Met Police are working to provide residents with temporary accommodation.

In a statement on Twitter, London City Airport CEO Robert Sinclair urged any passengers scheduled to fly today not to come to the airport and to contact their airline for further information.

His statement read: “The airport remains closed this morning following the discovery of a World War Two ordnance in King George V Dock on Sunday.”

“All flights in and out of London City on Monday are cancelled and an exclusion zone is in place in the immediate area. I urge any passengers due to fly today not to come to the airport and to contact their airline for further information.

“I recognise this is causing inconvenience for our passengers, and in particular some of our local residents. The airport is cooperating fully with the Met Police and Royal Navy and working hard to safely remove the device and resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”

The airport, which had almost 230,000 passengers pass through it last month, is located close to the Canary Wharf business area of the city and operates a number of short-haul flights.

Users of the airport reacted to the closure on Twitter.

Flight to Dublin from @LondonCityAir cancelled due to a WWII bomb, looks like I’ll be working in London today then.

— RICHARD MACEY (@RICHARDMACEY007) February 12, 2018

Not ideal when you have your flight to Aberdeen cancelled and now it’s a race to get a new flight 😩 Happy Monday... p.s I’m exhausted #LondonCityAirport #MondayMorning

— Becca (@bclsays) February 12, 2018

It's all drama at Edinburgh Airport today. My @British_Airways flight from Edinburgh is delayed because of problems at @LondonCityAir, classic. And passenger got so angry with the BA staff, one of the staff ran off crying. Drama.

— Lucinda Kingham (@LucindaKingham) February 11, 2018