Chemical incident at 695-a-night luxury hotel and country club shuts venue and sees fire service scramble to deal with plume as residents ordered to keep windows and doors shut [Video]

14:21 EDT 30 Jun 2024, updated 21:08 EDT 30 Jun 2024

A luxury £695-a-night hotel and country club has been forced to shut after a chemical leak created huge plume of fumes leading firefighters to scramble to the scene.

An urgent warning was sent out this morning telling residents living in leafy Eynsham in Oxfordshire to keep their windows and doors shut until the fumes pouring from the Estelle Manor had cleared. 

Thames Valley Police, who also attended the scene in North Leigh, said a substance used for cleaning the hotel’s swimming pools had leaked and caused a chemical reaction.

Guests who had been staying on the posh estate, which boasts of a 3,000 square metre Roman-inspired spa, for the weekend were evacuated from the buildings, while others were ‘turned away on arrival’.

The hotel, which is sister of Mayfair’s private members club Maison Estelle, is a known celebrity hotspot, with Amanda Holden and Alan Carrspotted celebrating the New Year …