Clean-up alert after containers fall off lorry

About 1,000 litres of an unidentified liquid leaked onto a busy Powys road when two containers fell off a lorry. Emergency services were called to the scene at Buttington Cross roundabout in Welshpool at 11.40am yesterday.nextpage

A Mid and West Wales Fire Service spokesman said a chemical unit and water tender from Newtown cleared the spillage. He said the containers had fallen off the truck on the roundabout. "The chemical officer reported a slight irritant from the liquid, but not enough to think it was hazardous," he said. "Luckily the liquid did not make it into the water course."nextpage

A Mid and West Wales Fire Service spokesman said eight firefighters were alerted to the incident and spent more than three hours at the scene. "The Environment Agency were called but did not attend in the end because the liquid was not believed to be hazardous," he added.nextpage

A Dyfed-Powys Police spokesman said they attended the incident and made sure the scene was made safe. He said traffic on the busy roundabout, where the main A483 and A458 routes from Oswestry and Shrewsbury merge, was disrupted for a time as the emergency services and Powys County Council responded to the incident but the road was not closed.