London’s Gatwick airport has reponed a terminal after a security alert earlier forced its evacuation, causing travel disruption for thousands of people.

Police sent an explosives disposal team to deal with a “suspected prohibited item” discovered in luggage at the airport’s south terminal earlier on Friday.

“The earlier security alert has now been resolved and cleared by police,” Gatwick said in a statement. “The South Terminal is reopening to staff and will be open to passengers shortly.”

Gatwick said some flights were cancelled and others were delayed by the incident. Passengers were advised to contact their airlines for any updates on flights.

In videos posted on social media, thousands of passengers were seen outside the terminal and the surrounding area after the terminal shut for several hours. Emergency foil blankets were distributed to some of the passengers who were waiting in the cold, according to social media pictures.

The incident disrupted weekend travel plans for thousands of passengers, with more than 600 flights due to land or take off on Friday from Gatwick, amounting to more than 121,000 passenger seats, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Speaking to Al Jazeera earlier from Gatwick, passenger Laurens Cook said there was “pandemonium in the air and everyone was rushing” when people were asked to clear out.

“We were moved to our departure gate and are sitting here waiting with no information on if our flight will take off or not. We have no idea when we are going to leave … nobody has disembarked from planes either,” Cook said.

The airport, the country’s second busiest, is 48km (30 miles) south of London.

In a separate incident on Friday, police said they had carried out a controlled explosion after “a suspicious package” was found outside the United States embassy in London.

The Metropolitan Police conducted the explosion after setting up cordons near the high-security site in Nine Elms, just south of the River Thames.

“We can confirm that the ‘loud bang’ reported in the area a short time ago was a controlled explosion carried out by officers,” police said in a post on X.

“Enquiries are still ongoing and cordons will remain in place for the time being.”

The US embassy said local authorities were investigating “a suspicious package” outside the building and that police had closed a nearby road “out of an abundance of caution”.