A secondary school in Alton is closed today following the discovery of a gas leak.

The leak at Eggar’s School in Holybourne was noticed by site manager David Webb, who arrived at 6.30am.

Although the school gates were open, Mr Webb was the only person around when the Herald visited at around 11am.

He said: “We believe the leak has come from the science laboratories. As soon as I entered the school I could smell it, because the science area is right next to the foyer. As the gas is lighter than air the upper floors were pretty smelly as well.

“The fire watch system in the laboratories worked well, cutting off the gas and electricity supplies as soon as it detected the leak. We evacuated the school and the decision to close it for the day was made at 7.45am. There were only a couple of pupils around at that stage.”

Mr Webb said the school did everything it could to save pupils a wasted journey or help them get home.

He added: “We emailed and texted the parents to tell them the school was closed, and the children could see those emails and texts too.

“Most of them hadn’t even left home when we told them, and those that were walking were able to turn back if they saw the messages. We had buses available to run pupils home if they had arrived from further away and had no other means of getting back.”

Mr Webb said he expected Eggar’s to re-open tomorrow: “Teams from SGN and Corrigenda are fixing the problem. Although there are no guarantees, we expect it to take a couple of hours, so the school should be fine to open on Tuesday.

“Most of the children didn’t mind - it was an extra day off for them!”