MORE than 40 workers had to be evacuated after flames were seen coming from a nearby gas tank.

Employees at Alliance Learning, on the Locomotion industrial estate, Horwich, were told not to return for 24 hours by firefighters after they were alerted at 4pm yesterday.

Crews cordoned off the estate's Chorley New Road entrance overnight as a precaution in case the acetylene cylinder became heated and exploded.

Vehicles operating from the Blue Bus depot, which is based on the industrial estate, had to travel out of the back exit while the cordon was in place.