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

Bremen airport was closing at 0300 GMT and Hamburg at 0400 GMT, Germany's weather service said.

The airspace over Berlin and Hanover could also be affected.

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 controller Eurocontrol said there was a strong possibility the ash cloud would travel over parts of Denmark, Norway and Sweden but the impact on flights would probably be limited.

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.

The disruption in air travel come just over a year after ash clouds from another Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, led to the closure of a large section of European airspace. Governments feared that ash particles could cause aircraft engines to fail, and the closure caused chaos to air travelers.

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