A GAS leak forced a County Durham petrol station to be evacuated this morning.

Staff and customers at the Co-op petrol station, in Barnard Castle, were evacuated during the incident which involved a leak from a propane tank just after 10am.

Tow fire crews, one from Barnard Castle and the other from Bishop Auckland, attended the scene.

A spokesman for the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service confirmed there had been a leak from the tank and crews used a ground monitor and waited for a gas engineer to attend.

It is understood no one was hurt.

The police also attended the incident for traffic management but the incident was resolved just after noon.