UK hit by rotten egg smell from France

A leak at a chemical factory in France has resulted in an horrendous odour spilling over much of south east England.

The sulphurous stink, though offensive to the nose, is completely harmless.

That hasn't stopped a swathe of calls to emergency services in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Oxfordshire and as far north as Northampton (see picture).

The gas, called mercaptan, was accidentally leaked from a factory in the northern city of Rouen and smells like rotten eggs. It is sometimes added to natural gas to alert people to gas leaks.

Calls from concerned Brits to the national grid jumped up ten fold.

Sussex Police said: "The smell is from an additive to the gas which has an unpleasant aroma but is not toxic and there is no danger to the public."

The French interior ministry told Sky News that a gas factory owned by the company Lubrizol, a subsidiary of investor Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway group, was to blame.