Emergency services called after barrel of 'unknown substance' found in

EMERGENCY services were called to a Hampshire residential street this morning following reports of a “suspicious substance”.

Police and fire crews arrived at Bow Lake Gardens in Bishopstoke at around 10am today.

An engineer attending to a junction box on the street found a barrel containing an unknown substance behind the box and reported it as “suspicious”.

Six fire crews and police arrived at the scene and set up a cordon in the area while the barrel was investigated.

Firefighters from Eastleigh, St Mary’s, Redbridge, Cosham, Winchester and Romsey arrived at the scene at around 10.20am to assist with the investigation.

But the barrel was found to not contain anything hazardous and the cordon was lifted.

A spokesperson from Hampshire Police said: "We were called at around 10am this morning.

"An engineer attending to a junction box in Bow Lake Gardens, found a barrel containing an unknown substance behind the box and reported it as suspicious.

"Officers attended along with Hampshire Fire and Rescue and a small cordon was put in place while Fire officers examined the barrel.

"The barrel was quickly identified to not contain anything hazardous and the cordon was lifted shortly afterwards.
“There were no evacuations of residents.”