Hundreds of people have been evacuated from flats in West Sussex after a significant gas leak caused police to declare a ‘major incident’.

People were urged to stay away from the large block of flats in Melton Mount Avenue, Crawley, after the gas leak was reported at around 12.21am, with around 700 residents evacuated and placed in temporary accommodation.

The incident caused ‘huge disruption’ as Sussex Police said work to get everyone back home ‘may take several hours yet’.

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.

‘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 the cause of the gas leak has not yet been determined but is ‘not believed to be criminal’, adding that more information will be released when possible.

Resident Leah Hicklin said she was evacuated at 1.30am but said that others were still being led from the building at 4am.

She told the BBC: ‘We thought it was only something minor until they started evacuating the minor floors and then I was the top floor and I could smell gas.

‘So they slowly but surely evacuated every single one of us. Some are in hotels, some are at family, some people really didn’t know where they were going. They’ve left pets behind and whatnot.’

The force is working with West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, South East Coast Ambulance Service, West Sussex County Council, Crawley Borough Council and Southern Gas to handle the ‘major incident’.

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