AN "extremely" dangerous liquid leaking from sterilising equipment in Watford General could have caused respiratory problems in those who came into contact with it.

The fire service's specialist Hazardous Materials Unit and four other crews were called to the incident at the hospital at 1.40pm, on Thursday.

Two firefighters in breathing apparatus and gas-tight chemical suits cleaned up the paracetic acid, used to sterilise instruments in theatre, with a special powder.

The clean-up operation, which took two hours, was hampered because the leak was coming from a small room, off an operating theatre, on the sixth floor.

Watford fire station's Red Watch commander David Elliott said: "It was potentially very serious. There was a malfunction and the unit spilled its contents across the floor.

"It is like chlorine and if breathed in it could have caused respiratory problems, and is extremely dangerous if it gets on bare skin."

"Because the incident was on the sixth floor, it caused us slight problems getting equipment to and from the scene. It was quite a protracted incident."

He said because a member of hospital staff noticed the malfunction, a more serious incident had been averted.

He said: "Luckily they managed to switch the machine off and confine it to a single room and we were able to deal with it more easily.

He said no one was injured during the incident, although two members of the hospital staff were taken to Accident and Emergency for check-ups.