Gatwick, the United Kingdom's second-biggest airport, has been closed for almost 12 hours after two drones were spotted near the airfield at around 9 pm on Wednesday night, stranding passengers just days before Christmas.

The airport was briefly opened again at 3 am, but closed 45 minutes later after more drones were reported, Gatwick said in a statement.

It is illegal to fly drones within 1 kilometer of an airfield boundary and a police investigation was underway, the airport said.

Gatwick, a major international airport located south of London, remained closed on Thursday morning, with passengers stranded at the terminal or re-routed to other airports.

Passengers due to land at Gatwick were instead arriving in Manchester, Luton or Heathrow in the UK, or even as far afield as Paris and Amsterdam.

Chaotic scenes at Gatwick

Passengers stranded at Gatwick in the early hours of Thursday described “total chaos,” with flights suspended and little information from staff.

Eddie Boyes was stuck at the terminal with his wife and four-year-old son for nine hours.

He told CNN they had received “no information from the airport — any information I have managed to get has been from social media.

“We have been given food vouchers totaling £30, offered a hotel room initially but very shortly afterwards this was retracted.”

“People are sleeping on the floor in south terminal,” he said, adding it was an “utter shambles.”

In a statement, the airport said: “We ‘re sorry for the inconvenience today, but the safety of our passengers and staff is our no.1 priority.”

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