'12 hours of hell': Leeds man describes chaos after fire at Alicante airport caused evacuation of hundreds of Leeds Bradford Airport bound passengers

The airport was evacuated on Wednesday afternoon after a huge fire broke out on the roof of the terminal.

Mobile phone footage shared across social media shows smoke billowing from the ceiling of the hub.

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

Aena said this morning that the terminal would remain shut until 2pm local time. (1pm GMT)

Recovery from the blaze is in the process of continuing.

Peter McParlin described '12 hours of hell' as passengers were told to leave the airport following the fire.

Peter said there were no English tannoy announcements and passengers were left confused at events within the airport.

He was due to return to Leeds Bradford Airport on Wednesday evening but was instead transferred to Murcia to catch an alternative flight which landed at 5am this morning (Thurs).

Peter said: "It was 12 hours of complete hell.

"There was no English tannoy and nobody knew what was going on.

"There must have been hundreds of people on the tarmac outside after the evacuation."

At least 2000 passengers are thought to be affected by flight cancellations due to the fire.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.