A school in Chorley had to be evacuated on Monday (March 4) due to reports of a nearby gas leak.

Duke Street Primary School was without heating today (March 5) and the whole school remained closed.

According to the Lancashire Council website, the school was evacuated on Monday afternoon due to reports of a gas leak at a nearby site.  It was unable to reopen until cleared to so by an engineer.

It was given the green light to reopen just before 12pm today and looks set to reopen as normal on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the school said: “[The school has] no heating.

“Gas leak reported in neighbouring [site] yesterday, resulting in school evacuation yesterday afternoon.

“Engineers did not attend yesterday evening (as had been promised). Unable to reopen until engineer cleared us to reopen which he did just before lunchtime today.”

The school was approached for more information but the Lancashire Telegraph was told that a member of management was not available to speak at that time.

A spokesperson for Cadent sadi: “I can confirm we attended the school yesterday afternoon, after a report of a smell of gas. As the gas emergency service, our job in situations like these is to make sure everything is safe. Our engineers did detect gas readings and made everything safe by isolating the gas supply. We then handed the scene over to the school and county council, to make arrangements for their own qualified engineers to rectify the issue.

“Incidents like this highlight the importance of always ringing the national gas emergency service immediately if you ever smell gas, day or night. The number is 0800 111 999*. Making the call immediately helps us keep everyone safe.”

A gas leak was also reported in Burnley yesterday.

The police and fire service descended on Calder Street to investigate the incident.

Officers closed the road and pavements on St James Street, between the junctions of Queen's Lancashire Way and Brown Street.