New York’s JFK airport evacuated due to ‘security incident’ on Fourth of July weekend as cops race to scene

: "Due to a security incident, arrivals and departure levels at Terminal 4 remain closed to inbound traffic.

"Please expect traffic delays and allow additional travel time"

The alert was sparked at around 11am due to an unattended bag in the departures area of the terminal, a Port Authority spokesperson told .

The bomb squad and detectives were on scene according to .

Travelers posted images on Twitter of crowds of people outside the terminal building.

By 12:30, the incident appeared to be over, with the airport tweeting: "Earlier security incident has been cleared. Arrivals and departure level roadways at Terminal 4 have reopened."

But officials warned there would be "residual traffic delays" which could delay access to the airport for passengers.

The Sun reached out to the Port Authority Police Department at JFK but they would not give a comment at this time.

The evacuation will impact travel on Fourth of July weekend as the country was already experiencing heavy flight delays.

JFK had already seen 115 flight delays and 13 cancelations on Sunday morning.

Across the whole of the US there were 1,376 delays and 231 cancelations before midday Eastern Time, according to .

On Saturday more than 600 flights into, out of or within the US were cancelled, and 5,200 delayed.