Fifteen Hermes staff had to be treated for skin irritations after a chemical leak at its depot in Aylesford this morning.

The company said a mystery substance began leaking from one of the parcels they were handling.

The leak which occurred at 5.30am led to a major emergency response with police sealing off the area around the company's premises at Mills Road on the Quarry Wood Industrial Estate in Aylesford.

Workers were prevented from accessing the site while fire crews and a Hazardous Area Response Team made the area safe.

The Loomis cash depot was also caught up in the cordon initially, but the area is now open again and both businesses have resumed normal working.

A spokesman for Hermes said: "We can confirm there was an incident at our depot this morning where an unknown substance leaked from a parcel.

"The site was evacuated on the advice of the emergency services and 15 members of staff have been treated for minor skin irritations."

"The site has been thoroughly cleaned and is operational again.

"Our teams are in good spirits and are working hard to minimise the delays on the limited number of affected parcels.”

Tesco confirmed its distribution centre in Mills Road was also forced to cancel some of its deliveries.

A spokesman said: “Due to road closures near our distribution centre in Aylesford some deliveries were late and a small number of deliveries have been cancelled. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience.”

At the height of the response five fire engines, an incident support unit, several ambulances and police were in attendance.

The ambulance service has since confirmed that no-one required hospital treatment.

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