By Dave Lord

TERRIFIED FAMILIES were evacuated from their Perth homes last night after thoughtless vandals attempted to rip a gas meter from the wall, causing what police described as a “major leak.”

A section of the Muirton housing estate was completely cordoned off after the alarm was raised shortly before 8pm.

Roads were closed and traffic diverted close to the scene of the potentially lethal leak at a property in Ainslie Place.

Firefighters were called in to assist with the evacuation and a total of 17 adults and children were eventually led from homes within the danger zone.

A spokeswoman for Tayside fire and rescue said a frightened member of the public had raised the alarm.

“We received a very panicky phone call from a woman saying that she suspected there was a gas leak within her flat in Ainslie Place,” she said.

“The building was evacuated and both inner and outer cordons were set up.

“Having helped with removing people from the premises, fire crews also had to retire to a safe distance while members of the gas board carried out an investigation.”

The spokeswoman said families faced a nervous wait and at one stage it seemed likely they would be unable to return home last night.

However, experts from Scotland Gas Networks (SGN) were soon able to pinpoint the leak and “cap it”, meaning families could safely go back to their properties shortly after 10pm.

A spokeswoman for SGN said, “The leak was down to the third party vandalism of an external meter, somebody had basically tried to remove the meter from the wall. Our engineers quickly established where the gas was escaping from and were able to cap it relatively quickly.”

A Tayside Police spokesman said, “At about 8pm, a major gas leak was reported at Ainslie Place.

“As a result emergency services evacuated a total of 17 people, both adults and children. Nobody was injured during the incident.”