Thousands of passengers at Heathrow were forced to fly without their luggage due to a baggage system failure affecting Terminals 3 and 5 this morning.

Travellers were told to pack essential items in their hand luggage as their checked luggage might not make it onto flights.

Passengers took to social media to express their disgust at the situation which comes just three weeks after the airport witnessed scenes of chaos caused by a British Airways IT failure.

Zoe Morrison wrote on Twitter: "@britishairways let us down again @HeathrowAirport- no baggage being loaded this morning and no information for passengers."

@British_Airways what a joke flying Heathrow to Lyon for cycling break and you fly us out without telling us you've left bikes in London — Adam Tansey (@tanzerwagen) June 15, 2017

Another frustrated passenger, Ryan Wooldridge, said: "Baggage failure at @HeathrowAirportthis morning.

"Bags won't be making it onto flights, absolute shambles."

Another day another Heathrow baggage fiasco pic.twitter.com/rRQqyA8Hl2 — tariq panja (@tariqpanja) June 15, 2017

Rachel Jackson tweeted: "Just found out that despite checking in 3 hours early bag not on flight disgusted what are you doing about it @HeathrowAirport?"

Heathrow tweeted saying the situation had been resolved at around 10am. It said: "Further to the baggage issues we experienced earlier this morning, bag drop desks are now open and operating normally in Terminals 3 and 5.

An important update following an issue with baggage systems at Heathrow earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/nAMXaKV11Q — Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) June 15, 2017

The airport had earlier issued a statement at 6.45am which advised passengers to pack essential items in their hand luggage and recommended that passengers who had already departed on flights this morning without their baggage contact their airline for further updates.

It means thousands will be touching down at their destination without their luggage. Adam Tansey tweeted this morning to say that he had arrived in Lyon for a cycling break, only to realise that their British Airways flight had left their bikes behind.

A BA spokesman told customers early this morning: "We're currently unable to accept bags and strongly encourage customers to pack essentials in their hand baggage.

"Heathrow Airport is working hard to fix the faults.

Stranded passengers following BA's IT failure Credit: This content is subject to copyright./DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

"We're sorry for the disruption that customers are facing and more information is available on BA.com."