THE heart of Hereford was at a standstill on Friday when a major gas leak forced the evacuation of some of the city's biggest shops and banks just as hundreds of shoppers were arriving at opening time.

Busy January trade was dealt a hammer blow as the possibility of explosion forced the closure of a large section of the city centre.

Fire officers and police cordoned off High Street and the top of Widemarsh Street and Broad Street as four teams of specialist gas engineers tried to locate the source of the leak.

Gas was detected coming out of drains and underground telephone exchanges up to 30 metres away from the three gas mains in the area.

Hundreds of bewildered shoppers and bank customers were prevented from entering the area by police as Transco workers dug up the street to locate ruptured pipes.

Spokesman for Transco, Dave Walker said: "We finally located the source of the leak at about 9pm on Friday evening.

"In total we spent around 14 hours working on the gas leak, which appears to have been caused by a certain amount of ground movement, which led to a joint working its way loose."

Authorities were alerted to the leak at 7.20am.

"There was a very strong smell of gas inside the store, strong enough to know straight away there was a gas leak," said Retail Operations Manager, Cynric Williams, who was first inside Marks and Spencer.

Seventy Marks and Spencer's staff sheltered upstairs in McDonald's throughout the morning waiting for news from emergency authorities.

Marks and Spencer's Food Manager, Sharon Robinson said the evacuation had meant a day's delivery of fresh food had been lost as there was no time to get it into refrigeration.

Meanwhile Barclays Bank announced all rival cash machines in the city could be used free of charge by customers unable to get near their Broad Street premises.

Other High Street retailers forced to evacuate were Littlewoods, Boots, and Burton Menswear.

The area remained fenced off through most of Saturday but all shops were open.

"We would like to apologise to everyone for the inconvenience caused," said Dave Walker.