HIGH winds caused a tree to come down and crash into a gas tank causing a major leak near Bicester.

Firefighters were called after the gas was seeping from a large domestic storage tank as the tree came to rest on top of a home in Bicester Road in Fringford.

It happened on Thursday, January 18, about 2pm as the county was battered by strong winds.

Fire crews found two large tree trunks had fallen onto the home and gas tank, damaging a valve to the top of the tank.

A number of residents were evacuated from nearby and Kidlington's Rescue Tender was called in to lift the trees.

Gas engineers were bought in to fix the leak and empty the tank before it was removed.

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Incident Commander Will McPhail said: "This incident posed many challenges for the agencies involved; these ranged from managing the effective closure of a busy main road at rush hour to the complex lifting and securing operation required to access the leak.

"This serious incident was resolved swiftly due to the effective multi-agency response that was organised, the assistance provided by Oxfordshire County Council emergency planning department and the specialist personnel that attended from each agency."