It was business as usual at Asda today after a chemical leak led to an evacuation of the store.A fire alarm alerted staff to a problem with their refrigeration unit which had a leak and was releasing gases.

It was business as usual at Asda today after a chemical leak led to an evacuation of the store.

A fire alarm alerted staff to a problem with their refrigeration unit which had a leak and was releasing gases.

Around 60 staff and a handful of late night shoppers left the store in Goddard Road, Ipswich, last night and waited until fire fighters had the problem under control.

Mark Eden was the night manager on duty at the time.

"The fire alarm alerted staff to a problem. The other manager on duty at the time made sure the store was clear while I dealt with the emergency services. We all waited outside until about 3.50am when we could go back in," he said.

Duty manager Mark Butcher said the leak was very small and had not really caused them any problems.

"It was simply a small leak from our refrigeration unit. The fire fighters had to establish what type of gas was being leaked and sort this out.

The only problem we had was dealing with deliveries but everything is absolutely fine now," he said.