BREAKING: Major Incident Declared as 700 People Evacuated Over ‘Significant’ Gas Leak

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Major incident declared as 700 People Evacuated Over Significant Gas Leak.

A MAJOR INCIDENT has been declared over a gas leak at a block of flats in Crawley. Hundreds of residents in a block of flats in Crawley have had to be evacuated while all available 999 services deal with the incident. Police said the ‘significant’ gas leak was reported in the early hours of this morning.

The force has said the incident is a multi-agency response, with West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and South East Coast Ambulance Service at the scene. West Sussex County Council, Crawley Borough Council and Southern Gas are also at the scene to resolve the incident quickly and safely.

Around 700 ‘shocked and distressed’ residents from the block have been evacuated and placed into temporary accommodation until the scene is safe, police have said. They have warned it may take several hours to resolve the situation- people are being urged to stay away from the area until the cause of the leak is found.

Residents reported feeling sick and had severe headaches and dizziness, emergency workers worked floor by floor to raise the alarm and evacuate the building in an orderly fashion so as not to cause panic.

Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Rayland said: “This is an ongoing incident which has caused huge disruption to hundreds of people on a cold January morning, and I’d like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we continue to work with our partners to minimise the ongoing disruption.”

“We are working hard to ensure this is dealt with as soon as possible to enable everyone to return home, however, this may take several hours yet. In the meantime, we are urging everyone to stay away from the area to allow the responding agencies to focus on resolving the incident to allow residents to return home,” he said.

DSC Rayland added: “The exact cause of the gas leak is yet to be determined but not believed to be criminal, and we will provide more information as soon as we are able to.”


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Tony Winterburn

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