British Airways has cancelled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports before 18:00 (BST) on Saturday due to a global IT outage.

"We have experienced a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide," explained the airline statement. There is no evidence at present that the failure was caused by a cyber attack, the BBC reported. 

While passengers in the UK are stranded at airports, there are also reported delays in places including Rome, Milan, Stockholm and Malaga.

The BA website was unavailable for a short time and there have been complaints from travelers unable to check in on the mobile application, according to the BBC.