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MORE than 200 people were evacuated from Parkhurst Road in Holloway after a gas leak forced the street to be shut for hours while engineers investigated.

A call to firefighters went out on Monday afternoon after locals began to smell gas. When on the scene, they cordoned off the road and began to evacuate residents from the surrounding area. Later, engineers from gas company Cadent found that a blown electricity cable had damaged the gas main line causing a gas leak.

A Cadent spokesperson said: “We worked with our emergency colleagues to evacuate upwards of 200 people for their own safety while repairs were carried out. As the damaged gas main was due to a fault on a nearby electricity cable, we had to wait for UK Power Networks to complete their repairs before we were able to complete our work to repair the leak.

“Our engineers completed repairs by 11.30 on Monday evening and started to reoccupy buildings after that.

“We would like to thank residents and business owners for their patience yesterday while we carried out these repairs to ensure their safety.”