EMERGENCY crews wearing gas protection suits tackled an overheating container at a chemical plant yesterday.

Firefighters closed the road outside the Lucite International plant, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, as a precautionary measure while they dealt with the incident.

The emergency services were called in the early hours of yesterday when staff at the site noticed a drum was expanding.

The single 200kg drum that sparked the alarm contained acrylic resin, a non-hazardous product.

Fire crews from Newton Aycliffe and Durham used protective suits as a precaution while the drum was cooled and made safe.

A spokesman for the factory, in Horndale Avenue, Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate, said there had not been a leak and no one had been in any danger.

He said: "In line with procedures on the site we called the emergency services, who briefly closed the road outside the site purely as a precaution.

"Plant personnel, in conjunction with the emergency services, cooled the drum down and that was it basically.

"Safety is obviously the top priority on that particular site and they took the correct actions. There was no danger at any stage to people on or off the site."

Dave Turnbull, of County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Brigade, said the emergency special services team were on site for about three hours.

He added: "These incidents are always treated as the worst-case scenario because you just don't know what you're going to find.

"It's always best to be prepared because of the potential risks involved, even if it might turn out at a later stage to be innocuous."