A road remains shut today after homes were evacuated due to a gas leak.

Two houses in Rowner Road, Gosport have been evacuated and engineers are at the scene making emergency repairs.

Authorities were alerted at 4am after reports of gas leaking and were working throughout the day.

Twleves hours after the initial reports of gas, it was revealed that work at the scene will continue until tomorrow at the earliest.

The B3334 Rowner Road has been shut as a result, betwee Grange Road and the roundabout at Fareham Road.

Workers are on site attempting to fix the problem and it requires more excavation than originally believed, meaning work will continue until Wednesday morning.

As of 5pm, a decision has not yet been made as to let the people evacuated from their homes to return.

Southern Gas Networks (SGN) spokeswoman, Claire Buchanan said: "Our specialist engineers are currently reducing the gas pressure in the pipe to allow us to carry out a repair as quickly and safely as possible.

"Rowner Road will remain closed between the roundabouts at Grange Road and Fareham Road for the next few hours at least. A signed diversion for motorists will be in place shortly.

"Two properties close to the area we are working in were evacuated earlier this morning. We do appreciate there is a considerable smell of gas as it vents into the air. We’d like to assure residents we are monitoring this closely to ensure their continued safety."

A resident known only as Dave living in one of the properties said he and his wife Christine were woken up in the early hours by engineers who had put a probe through their letter box to determine how much potentially flammable gas has escaped into their property.

Dave said: “They told us of bubbles coming up through the pavement and across the grass verges towards our house.”

He added: “What they were worried about is that if we’ve got solid flooring there could be a build-up of gas underneath the house."

He said a neighbour called Sue was also evacuated and he was worried about the traffic problems caused by the road closure.