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 a.m. (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.