POLICE sealed off a Walkden road for over eight hours during one of two chemical spills in the area at the weekend.

The alarm was raised yesterday after a resident in Parsonage Road saw a liquid leak from a lorry trailer onto the road.

Firefighters and police were called and found the trailer parked round the corner in Bridgewater Road with the driver, Thomas Bradley of Jackson Street Commercials, securing the load of chemical drums. The trailer was part of a consignment of vehicles being taken from a depot in Parsonage Road to the firm's Farnworth yard.

One drum on the trailer had rusted through and fallen over, spilling part of its contents, which were not known.

While police sealed off the road, experts were brought in to analyse the strong-smelling liquid, which was found to be a solvent, and the contents of the other drums.

No homes needed to be evacuated and, at 11pm, Leigh Environmental were brought in to remove the load and take it away for disposal. The solvent which had spilled onto Parsonage Road was washed away by firemen wearing protective suits. The incident has been reported to the Health and Safety Executive.

It was the second time that the police and fire brigade had been called out to deal with a spillage in the area.

On Saturday at 1pm, a tanker carrying hydrochloric acid was coming off the motorway onto Worsley Road, Worsley, when the driver saw fumes coming from the vehicle.

He pulled over and called the emergency services to deal with 10 litres of the liquid which had spilled. Firemen swilled away the acid and police and a fire tender escorted the tanker on the rest of its journey to Swinton.

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