London's Gatwick Airport was temporarily shut today after a flight from Paris to Cardiff experienced problems en route and had to make an emergency landing, a spokesman said.

"There was an emergency landing by a Flybe aircraft, which is now sitting on the side of the runway," the spokesman said.

It was not immediately clear what had affected the aircraft but the spokesman said there were no injuries on board following the emergency landing.

The aircraft was flying from Charles de Gaulle airport to Cardiff in Wales.

Sussex Police said the runway reopened about 30 minutes after the incident and that 11 flights were diverted during the closure.

Gatwick is the world's busiest single-runway airport and Britain's second busiest airport after Heathrow, handling around 34 million passengers a year.

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