Alicante airport evacuated as fire breaks out at terminal

Flights are being diverted to nearby airports

Alicante airport has been evacuated as a fire broke out on the roof of the terminal.

Airport operator Aena tweeted: "For security reasons the airport terminal is being evacuated away from Alicante-Elche due to a fire on the deck."

It later said that firefighters had the blaze under control and the airport was being ventilated.

Four inbound flights have been diverted to the nearby airports of Valencia and Murcia, it said.

Alicante-Elche airport is 160km from Valencia and 70km from Murcia.

Flights are expected to resume soon, Aena said.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Footage from eyewitnesses shared on social media shows plumes of smoke billowing from the terminal roof and passengers waiting around outside.

The Costa Blanca airport is the fifth-busiest in Spain. Last year, 15 million passengers passed through the airport – with many of them from the UK.

The city and wider Costa Blanca region is a popular holiday spot for Britons.