Eight fire engines from West Sussex and Hampshire helped avert a potential disaster after a lorry collided with a tanker carrying 10,000 litres of Calor gas last Thursday morning.

It plunged down an embankment into a ditch on the B2146 outside Uppark House just before 9am.

The lorry, which was carrying topsoil, was embedded in a tree.

Sussex firefighters initially feared some gas had escaped, but quickly confirmed that it had not.

The tanker driver was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, with a suspected dislocated shoulder. The lorry driver was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The road was closed for almost seven hours while the wreckage from the accident was cleared.

Four fire crews were at the scene and used specialist equipment as a precaution to prevent any fires breaking out. The cylinders were removed from the tanker by Calor gas engineers before the vehicles were moved.

Paul Archer of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said: “It was extremely lucky no one was hurt. You’d have heard the bang for miles if it had gone up.”