All flights into and out of London's Heathrow airport, the largest in Europe, were suspended Thursday due to a major computer failure in the air traffic control system, British Airways (BA) said.

A spokesman for the BA said the computer at the National Air Traffic Service in southern England went down at about 6 am (0600 GMT).

Several other airports also suspended all domestic and international takeoffs and the delay could last for at least two hours, according to British media.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2004)