London's Heathrow airport shut after Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner fire

Runways at London's Heathrow airport have closed after an incident involving an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet.

Arrivals and departures were suspended after the incident at 16:30 BST, a spokesman for the airport said. No passengers were aboard at the time.

Fifty Dreamliners worldwide were grounded in January because of battery malfunctions.

Boeing later modified the jets with new batteries.

In April an Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner - said to be the plane involved in the Heathrow incident - flew from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on the first commercial flight since the grounding.

Pictures of the Heathrow fire on Twitter show an aircraft close to a terminal building surrounded by fire vehicles. London Fire Brigade said its crews were standing by to assist Heathrow staff.

A Heathrow spokesman said: "We can confirm there has been an on-board internal fire involving an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft and the airport's emergency services are in attendance.

"The aircraft was parked on a remote parking stand. There were no passengers on board and there are no reported injuries at this time.

"Arrivals and departures are temporarily suspended while airport fire crews attend to this incident. This is a standard procedure if fire crews are occupied with an incident."

The Metropolitan Police said: "Police at Heathrow were alerted to a fire on a plane. Emergency services are in attendance.

"At this time it is believed no one was on board and there are no reports of any injuries. The fire is being treated as unexplained."

- BBC