FIRE crews cordoned off a large area of Accrington town centre on Saturday as they investigated a possible chemical leak.

Workers at Duckworths Estate Agent in St James Street reported a ‘haze and strange smell’ in their building at about 3.30pm, which prompted a major operation involving 10 fire crews, police and paramedics.

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Two female office workers had complained of ‘irritated skin’, but were checked over by paramedics and given the all clear without needing treatment.

A specialist unit from Manchester was also called to the scene at about 6pm, but was unable to establish what the substance was.

Incident commander Steve Snape said: “We did all our surveys and decided we couldn’t find anything, so we turned the power back on and left it for 20 minutes to see if anything was being emitted, but there was nothing.”

Fire crews then turned the power off again and passed the premises over to the landlord, with advice to contact them again if there were further issues. The cordon was taken down at about 10pm.

Watch manager Gary Drinkwater had said earlier in the evening: “There was a haze in the building when we arrived and a sort of sweet smell. It’s not something I’ve ever smelled before. It’s a strange incident all round.

"We need the fire engines here because the breathing apparatus we are using to go into the building need to be charged up every 20 minutes or so.”

A spokesman for North West Ambulance Service said the two office workers were checked over at the scene.

Nobody from Duckworths was available to comment.