Two people arrested over drone activity at London's Gatwick airport

Two people have been arrested in connection with drone activity that shut down London's Gatwick Airport for 36 hours, causing chaos for Christmas travellers.

Passengers at Gatwick airport wait for their flights following cancellations caused by the drones.

Passengers at Gatwick airport wait for their flights following cancellations caused by the drones. Source: AAP

Two people have been arrested in connection with the "criminal use of drones" which has caused widespread disruption to flights at London's Gatwick Airport.

Sussex Police said the arrests were made at around 10pm on Friday and investigations are continuing.

The force has not disclosed the ages or genders of those arrested, nor the locations of where the arrests took place.

Two drones were spotted flying inside the perimeter of the UK's second biggest airport on Wednesday at around 9pm with disruption due to continue into the weekend.

Flights were briefly grounded at the airport on Friday evening after a fresh sighting at around 5.10pm, but military measures reassured operators it was safe to reopen the runway shortly afterwards.

Despite flights resuming after 70 minutes, airlines were still cancelling and delaying outbound flights throughout the evening and into the night.

Inbound flights were also operating with delays, with some scheduled to arrive at Gatwick in the early hours of Saturday.

Superintendent James Collis of Sussex Police said: "As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm on 21 December.

"Our investigations are still ongoing, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones by deploying a range of tactics.

"We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant and support us by contacting us immediately if they believe they have any information that can help us in bringing those responsible to justice."


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