Passengers at Heathrow Airport were forced to board their flights without their luggage after a power cut left the airport in "chaos".

The temporary power outage in Terminal 5, at around 7am on Tuesday (August 4), meant the conveyor belts did not work and luggage had to be checked in manually on trolleys by staff.

But hundreds of suitcases were left in the airport while the owners had no option but to board their flights without them.

Marcel Maier, 35, travelling to Hamburg, said: "The queues are long and chaotic, but I've just had to leave my baggage with the staff and hope that it arrives.

"I am not confident it will arrive today, the airport isn't sure either, so that is definitely going to cause me frustration.

"People are really frustrated, and it's crazy just looking at the piles and piles of bags everywhere."

James Bardolph, 30, travelling to Dusseldorf, said: "British Airways had to get out a concertina wall on wheels to collect bags next to the check in.

"My luggage carousel had all three bags on it, and I am not sure if anything else is coming out.

"I am going to Dusseldorf to do a broadcast, and that bag has critical equipment in it.

"I might have to fly more colleagues out to get the equipment over there."

'Terrible' customer services

Meanwhile people flying into Heathrow had to wait hours in the baggage hall for their belongings.

Heathrow announced that the power outage, caused by their supplier, was resolved around 10am.

Airport bosses said said staff were doing their best to deal with the delays.

But many passengers took to Twitter to vent their frustration, and even posted pictures of the mountains of unattended bags.

Gerry Rowe said: "No luggage still from Amsterdam flight. Does Heathrow Airport ever work?

"Waiting for your luggage takes longer than your flight, customer services at Heathrow are terrible."

Allan Clark said: "It just gets worse as my bag didn't make the flight. Thanks, another rubbish trip with BA."

British Airways, whose flights were significantly affected by the power cut, said they hoped to fly out baggage as soon as possible.

A BA spokesman said: "We are getting bags out to people as fast as we can.

"If bags have missed the original flight there will be a backlog as we will have to try to move bags onto flights which are already busy.”