A large scale chemical scare was sparked when a resident tried to clean a toilet last night (Thursday).

The occupant had mixed a cleaning product with bleach, causing a chemical reaction and a smell to spread through the block of flats in Percival Street, at the junction with Goswell Road, Finsbury.

Firefighters were called at around 10.15pm and four appliances as well as specialist equipment arrived at the scene shortly after.

But the property was ventilated and no action was required.

Police closed the road in both directions while firefighters investigated the incident and it wasn’t reopened until around 11.15pm.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said the residents along the road were left very concerned by the high number of police and firefighters on the scene and were not informed of what was happening.

She said: “There were fire engines and police everywhere and nobody was allowed to walk along the pavements. If you had seen it you would have thought there was a crazy person out there with a machine gun or something.

“It is a bit frightening when you don’t know what was going on – all the police would say was that there was an ‘incident.’”