Holiday company Thomas Cook went into administration at 2am this morning, leaving 150,000 UK holidaymakers stranded abroad and placing 9,000 jobs at risk.

Thomas Cook Group, which has branches in Welwyn Garden City and St Albans, ceased trading due to unresolvable financial issues, with the official administration timed for the early hours of the morning when the largest number of planes were on the ground.

Transport secretary and Welwyn Hatfield MP Grant Shapps said all customers currently abroad with Thomas Cook who are booked to return home over the next two weeks will be brought home as close as possible to their planned return date, and asked for travellers to remain patient.

The effort to bring everyone home has been described as "the biggest peacetime repatriation in UK history". The Civil Aviation Authority has asked passengers stranded abroad not to travel to the airport until a return flight has been organised, and advised Thomas Cook customers still in the UK not to go to the airport as their outgoing flights have been cancelled.

A website has been set up to provide information for travellers who are stuck - see thomascook.caa.co.uk.

If you are in Welwyn Hatfield or St Albans and have been affected by the company's collapse, please get in touch via either news@whtimes.co.uk or hertsad@archant.co.uk.