Evacuated Hotel Guest In Charing Cross Gas Leak: “We Had No Idea What Was Happening”

23 January 2018, 11:44 | Updated: 23 January 2018, 13:02

One of the hotel guests evacuated in the early hours of the morning described how a nearby hotel’s library became a shelter for hundreds and how staff handed everyone blankets and duvets to help keep them warm.

Charing Cross station in London was closed and around 1,450 people evacuated from a nightclub and a hotel because of a gas leak.

Alison was staying at the Amba hotel on the Strand for her husband’s birthday.

She told LBC’s Racheal Venables: “I do have to say the hotel guests were very calm and collected, the hotel staff were very good and they ushered us all into Trafalgar Square.  Nobody really knew what was happening”.

Alison says the possibility of a terror related incident crossed her mind but they were quickly reassured by police officers.

She told LBC a nearby hotel’s library because a shelter for around 200 or 300 people.

“There are people here in their dressing gowns and slippers”.

She added: “There are one or two very cold guests but they've been really good here.  They've given us blankets and duvets and a lot of people have gone to sleep on the floor.”

Speaking to Racheal outside the Royal Horseguards Hotel she said: “We're up on the top floor of Royal Horseguards.  It's not a ballroom, we're up in the library.  

There are people all over the top floor, I would think around 200 or 300 people.  I've got no idea”.

She praised staff who had offered duvets and blankets and provided hot drinks but said she was looking forward to going back to her hotel.

The area reopened by Tuesday lunchtime after repairs were carried out.