Iceland volcano ash closes airspace in northern Germany

Germany is closing its northern airspace on Wednesday because of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland, officials say.

Bremen and Hamburg airports closed early on Wednesday, with traffic at Berlin's airports due to stop later.

Experts say particles in the ash could cause jet engines to stall.

Air traffic in Norway and Denmark has been disrupted but flights were expected to resume across the UK after some airspace in the north was closed.

Services in and out of Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England had been badly hit, with about 500 flights cancelled across Europe.

Europe's air traffic control body Eurocontrol said no flights were expected on Wednesday at Bremen and Hamburg airports, which on a normal day handle about 120 and 480 flights respectively.

The ash cloud is expected to affect Berlin from 1100 (0900GMT). Lufthansa, the national carrier, said it expected a total of 150 of its flights to be cancelled.

Eurocontrol said the cloud could also affect parts of Poland. There are no restrictions on flights in any other part of Europe.

Experts say particles in the ash could cause jet engines to stall.

Germany's transport authorities have taken a tough view on the potential dangers it poses, says the BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin.

There has been no outright criticism of the decision from German airlines, but there is unease in the industry that Germany's rules regarding flying through volcanic ash are different from the rest of Europe, our correspondent says.

The head of the country's airport organisation said Europe-wide rules were needed.

France's civil aviation authority has said it expects very little disruption to air traffic and was not expecting to close any of the country's airspace.

Larger particles

Britain's weather service said the concentration of volcanic ash in UK airspace would decrease significantly over the course of Wednesday.

But the Met Office said that if Grimsvotn volcano continued to erupt at "current variables", much of the country could be affected by ash on Friday, with flights being potentially disrupted.

The volcano began erupting last Saturday, sending clouds of ash high into the air.

Experts say the eruption is on a different scale to that of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano last year, when millions of travellers were stranded amid concerns about the damage volcanic ash could cause to aircraft engines.

European Union transport commissioner Siim Kallas said: "We do not at this stage anticipate widespread airspace closure and prolonged disruption like we saw last year."

Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson told the BBC: "The eruption is gradually being diminished and the ash cloud is definitely smaller than it has been so we are pretty optimistic now."

The ash particles from Grimsvotn are larger than those from Eyjafjallajokull, and so fall to the ground more quickly.

A forecaster at Iceland's meteorological service said Grimsvotn was producing less ash on Tuesday and the plume had decreased in height to about 5,000m (16,400ft).