Families were evacuated from their homes in an Essex town following reports of a gas leak.

Emergency services worked with gas engineers from Cadent to fix the problem in Hutton Road, Shenfield on Sunday night and make the area safe.

A cordon was put in place, which included Shenfield rail station.

No trains were running from Shenfield due to planned engineering work, but rail replacement bus services between Southend Victoria and Newbury Park were diverted from the station while the incident was underway.

Travellers were picked up from Chelmsford Road instead, Greater Anglia confirmed.

Essex Police and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service were sent to the scene.

A police spokesman said: “A cordon has been established and we will likely be evacuating residents living between Friars Avenue and Crossways as a safety precaution.”