Sofia Airport re-opened for business at 7.10pm after being closed for more than eight hours on July 3 2008.

The airport was closed after a nearby army warehouse full of about 1500 tons of conventional shells and cartridges exploded. Explosions have been going on since 6.28am and are expected to continue even further. No one was harmed in the explosions with police and firefighters waiting for them to end before checking on the state of the warehouse.

During the day aircraft has been redirected to Plovdiv airport and passengers waiting in the departures terminal building were issues additional chairs and portable toilets.

TV reports showed hundreds of passengers being taken outside the airport's two terminals where they were left for the entire day.

Mineral water and food was allocated according to some of the passengers.

The airport was supposed to be back in operation at 2.30pm, but the deadline was later extended to 3.30pm and then 5.30pm. A check of the areas around the runway was launched.