A fire on an Ethiopian Airlines jet on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport has forced Britain's busiest airport to close both of its runways as emergency services tackle the blaze.

No one is believed to have been on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a type of long-range, mid-size airliner, which has been at the centre of troubles in the recent past following a series of battery fires. The plane was on the stand and there were no reports of injuries.

Earlier this year, battery smoke coming from two Dreamliner planes operated by Japanese carriers led to a grounding of the world's 787 fleet and a halt to all deliveries of the planes to airlines.

The BBC reported that the plane on fire at Heathrow was the first 787 Dreamliner to resume flights after the grounding.

The incident caused all landings and take-offs to be suspended at around 5pm on Friday as the busy summer holiday get-away period builds up.

The battery problems followed endless production difficulties for the Dreamliner, which has been marketed as a quiet, fuel-efficient aircraft, carrying between 201 and 290 passengers on medium-range routes.

It should have entered passenger service in 2008 but it was not until October 2011 that the first commercial flight was operated by the Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways.

Thomson Airways became the first British carrier to operate the ultra-green Dreamliner earlier this month. British Airways is due to take delivery of the first two of its 24 Dreamliners, while Virgin Atlantic is set to get the first of its 16 Dreamliners in September next year.