Police called for an evacuation of office blocks and a school after a gas leak was discovered this afternoon.

Firefighters were called at 2.40pm to reports of a strong smell of gas caused by a fractured gas main in Burlington Road, near Shannon Corner on the border of New Malden and west Wimbledon.

Burlington Road has now re-opened and police cordons have been lifted, with the only sign left of the gas leak being a small hole in a pavement surrounded by plastic fencing.

Gas pipe broke after "car hit a tree"

Guy Langstaffe, who works for heating company Robert Heath, said: “I found the gas leak at about 1.30pm this afternoon.

"We could smell gas in the building so I went outside and a car had hit a tree last night so maybe that has something to do with it.

“I could feel the gas coming up. I was very worried.

“We called the police and Southern Gas Network [SGN]. Workers [from the office] tried to stop cars in the road.”

Workers were back in their two-storey office block by 3.30pm.

Four SGN vans were deployed outside the building and a spokeswoman for the utility company said the engineers would be able to fix the fractured pipe before this evening.

Schoolchildren given refuge and doughnuts after evacuation

At 3pm, Merton Council confirmed the evacuation of Sacred Heart school with Raynes Park High School being used as a temporary rest centre.

Alison Emmons, at the Krispy Kreme doughnut cafe in Shannon Corner, said : “All we know is there was a gas leak.

"The school had been evacuated and I invited the school into Krispy Kremes just to look after them and keep them warm out of the cold.

“I think the children were a little bit shocked. This was about 30 minutes ago. Most children have now gone home.”

Sacred Heart School pupil Perrin Amalarj, nine, said the building was evacuated at about 2pm and he called his mum from nearby Krispy Kreme.

He said: “It’s good and bad. We didn’t get our school bags, we just had to leave school out the back and we all gathered together out there.

“We were just reading out our projects, hearing about Lego, when we got told we needed to leave.”

New Malden firefighter Dik Tomkins said: “The information we have been given is several houses and a school have been evacuated as a precaution.

“We were actually out on another job at the time on somebody else’s ground.

“I believe the gas main is fractured.”

A police cordon was set up at Shannon’s Corner roundabout underneath the A3 blocking access from the road near Krispy Kreme’s towards Raynes Park.

Do you know more? Contact Omar by calling 020 8722 6335; tweeting @OmarOakes or emailing: ooakes@london.newsquest.co.uk.