Sofia Airport will not service flights until at least 6.30pm on July 3 2008, the airport said on its website. The airport was closed earlier in the day 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.

The airport was closed for two and a half hours after the explosions started, after speculation in Bulgarian media suggested that a shell has gone off on the runway. After this information did not come true, the airport management decided to ground all flights.

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

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.