BUDAPEST (REUTERS) - A terminal of Budapest Airport was briefly shut down late on Wednesday (Aug 15) due to an overheated container carrying an isotope, a spokesman for the Hungarian Disaster Management Authority said.

"Material damaging to health did not get into the environment," Marton Hajdu told Reuters, adding that Terminal 2B was shut down to facilitate a fast investigation.

"Passengers are perfectly safe, " he added.

The terminal was shut between 7.30pm (1.30am on Thursday, Singapore time) and about 10.30pm and eight incoming and eight outgoing flights were affected, Budapest Airport spokesman Laszlo Kurucz told Reuters.

Passengers and crew of the flight that carried the container and passengers at the airport were not in danger, according to information from the Disaster Management Authority, Hajdu added.

The officials did not name the flight or the isotope.

A Reuters photographer at the airport saw firemen enter a Turkish Airlines plane parked on the tarmac.

Neither the airport nor the disaster control authority confirmed the flight affected was operated by Turkish Airlines.

The airport office of Turkish Airlines was not immediately available for comment.