A 100 METRE exclusion cordon was thrown around a site just off the A38 near Newton Abbot after a gas mains was severed.

Staff at a nearby caravan retail outlet - Outdoor Experience - were moved to workshops while the emergency services dealt with the hazard on the edge of the Heathfield estate at Higher Brocks Plantation.

The alarm was raised just after 9am today (thursday) when a tractor trimming roadside hedges severed the 40mm pipe.

Transco officials were called to cap the full pressure leak. The cordon was removed three hours later. ends