Hundreds of people evacuated from homes in Sussex after gas leak sparks ‘major incident’

At least 700 people were forced to leave their homes overnight

Hundreds of people in West Sussex were forced to evacuate their homes overnight after a gas leak.

Hundreds of people in West Sussex were forced to evacuate their homes overnight following a gas leak that was declared a “major incident”.

As many as 700 people were forced to leave their homes and move into temporary accommodation after the incident unfolded in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Sussex Police said. 

In a statement, the police department said the gas leak had initially been reported at around 12.21am, with a number of agencies, including fire and ambulance services responding.

No injuries were reported.

“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,” Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Rayland said in a statement.

“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.

It is still unclear what caused the gas leak, but Mr Rayland said investigators did not believe the cause “to be criminal”.

“We will provide more information as soon as we’re able to,” he said.