Man Arrested After Pepper Spray Incident at Heathrow Airport

Police said a man has been arrested on suspicion of assault after pepper-spraying several people in a Heathrow Airport car park.

sarah

Dec 7, 2025 - 20:22

Man Arrested After Pepper Spray Incident at Heathrow Airport

Police said a man has been arrested on suspicion of assault after pepper-spraying several people in a Heathrow Airport car park.

Police said an argument between people known to each other escalated and resulted in injuries, and they are searching for other suspects.

Twenty-one people were treated for injuries, five of whom were taken to hospital.

The Metropolitan Police said this was an isolated incident and is not being considered terrorism- or protest-related.

The incident had delayed trains earlier in the day and closed the car park, but it reopened by 11:30 GMT.

Police and emergency services were called to Terminal 3's multi-story car park at 08:11.

Tom Bate was waiting for the elevator in the Terminal 3 car park when he saw "some young men dressed in black quickly emerge from the crowd" and then enter through a side door.

"As soon as they left, people started coughing, and then I started coughing too," he told the BBC. "I felt a burning sensation in the back of my throat."

Leaving the car park, he said he saw police arriving. "It was amazing to see the police rushing towards danger," he said. "I was so glad to hear it wasn't terrorism because it felt like I was in the middle of an attack - it was so fast."

Social media footage showed a large number of armed police, fire engines, and an officer searching a man in handcuffs.

Finn Fraser, who arrived at Heathrow from the US on Sunday morning, said that as he tried to leave the car park, "armed police were running around and checking people's cars."

"When they came up to us, they knocked on our window and told us to turn off the car, and then they looked inside the car."

Describing it as a "strange experience," he added: "It felt like I was in a James Bond movie."

Rail services were disrupted on Sunday, with Heathrow advising passengers to "allow extra time when traveling to the airport."

Parts of the Heathrow Express and Elizabeth Line were halted on Sunday morning while responders attended the scene, but trains resumed running later that morning.

Heathrow advised passengers to "allow extra time when traveling to the airport and check with their airline for any questions." Due to traffic congestion on nearby roads following the incident, the airport advised passengers to use public transportation.

Airport staff distributed water bottles to passengers waiting for buses from Terminal 3, where one family reported waiting at the bus stop for three hours for a shuttle to the long-stay car park after their flight. Shuttles typically run every 15 minutes.