Scotland Yard claimed that a plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" had been disrupted.
By lunchtime, as people eager to get the latest news on the day's events logged on, BBC Online's top story ‘Airlines Terror Plot’ disrupted had generated more than 3.2 million page views.
The figure far outweighed normal demand placed on the site. On average, a top story on the BBC News website generates roughly half a million page views.
By mid-afternoon, the Have Your Say pages of the BBC News website had received nearly 2,000 comments - with 500 posted and a further 1,300 waiting to be published.
BBC News also received more than 1,000 emails from people submitting stories about their experiences at airports up and down the country as the corporation deployed its own correspondents at key sites to offer rolling TV and web coverage via News 24.
For the first time ITV used its 24-hour breaking news team - similarly with reporters stationed up and down the country - to report live from airports as news broke across the country.
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