Thousands of London taxi and Minicab drivers raced to reinsure their vehicles after they received a text message informing them that their insurance had been cancelled.

Danish firm Alpha declared bankruptcy, meaning all policies were cancelled. The insurance company had used brands such as Cover My Cab and Protector to cover up to 700 taxi drivers and 10,000 minicab drivers.

Ripon, in a tweet said: “URGENT MESSAGE - your taxi insurance policy with Alpha Insurance is cancelled with immediate effect. Please contact Protector on 020 74467676 where we will be able to arrange alternative cover. Just received this message. Has alpha gone bust???”

John Sitton tweeted: “Just got my email from LTDA informing everyone who is insured with Alpha insurance must take out another insurance policy as there's is null and void. WTF.”

General Secretary of the LTDA, Steve McNamara said: “London taxi drivers pride ourselves on high standards of safety and compliance.

“We have notified all of our members about this change, to ensure that no-one is unintentionally driving without insurance. We will be supporting any of our members that may have been affected.”

There were long queues at insurance broker offices, yesterday. It is still unclear whether refunds will be given for those who had taken up policies with Alpha.

The LTDA tweeted: “Massive Queues outside Protector. We are awaiting responses from the ABI, the Danish FSA (ALPHA were a Danish Company) Updates as soon as we have them!”

The company, which is headquartered in Denmark and is allowed to operate in other countries in the EU, was placed into liquidation on May 4 and subsequently went bankrupt on May 8.

By Airport Pickups London