'People were feeling claustrophobic' - woman stuck in chaotic Birmingham Airport security queue for hours

A woman has described chaotic scenes at a UK airport - which saw her waiting more than FOUR hours to get through security.

Lucy Kenneally, 23, was flying back home to Newcastle, Northern Ireland, with her boyfriend Matthew, 24, after spending the weekend at Silverstone. The pair arrived at Birmingham Airport at 6.10am - two hours ahead of their 8.40am flight to Belfast International.

Lucy claims the airport app said it would take '0-15 minutes' to get through security but when she arrived there was "hundreds if not thousands of people" queuing.

Lucy and Matthew waited in line to get through security for more than four hours and were still in the queue when the plane was due to take off at 8.40am.

They eventually managed to get through and say their flight was held for a few hours due to the chaos. Once they got through security, the couple sprinted to the gate and luckily made it onboard before their flight took off at 10am.

Lucy, a student nurse, from Newcastle, North Ireland, said: "I would say there was hundreds if not thousands of people - it was mad.

"Children were crying, a lot of people were feeling claustrophobic. There was a lot of elderly people there too - it was mental.

"The flight didn't end up setting off until around 10am."

A Birmingham Airport spokesperson said: “We saw a usual busy morning on Monday 29th of April at Birmingham Airport with customers queuing downstairs, which is the new normal, as the upstairs queuing area has been taken out of service as we construct our new security area.

“In addition there was a technical issue with our security lanes, which compounded the peak departure schedule and hindered our operation.

"We sincerely apologise to our customers for the level of service that they received, this is not what we aim to deliver here at Birmingham Airport."