Sumburgh Airport closed after lightning strike

Sumburgh Airport has been forced to close after a lightning strike was believed to have hit the terminal building earlier this afternoon.

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) stated: “Severe weather has affected our communications systems and the airport is currently closed until 7pm.

“Engineers are currently working to resolve the situation. We would advise passengers expecting to travel to contact their airlines.

“We apologise for any inconvenience and the airport will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so.”

A Loganair flight from Aberdeen to Sumburgh was forced to return to Aberdeen after the airport in the South Mainland was closed.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Network (SSEN) has also apologised after more than 400 homes in the North Mainland were left without power following inclement weather.

The outage occurred at around 4.40pm and was expected to continue until around 8pm.

The electricity company said its engineers were on site and working hard to get the power back on as quickly as possible.