A COMMUNITY hall had to be evacuated and two women taken to hospital after a carbon monoxide leak.

The women collapsed as a bingo caller called time on a game at Neville Community Centre in Newton Aycliffe, on Friday night.

Bingo caller Peter Beaty, and trustee of the centre, said he began to feel unwell when he was calling the numbers but thought it was down to his diabetes.

After a break in the session, he continued with the game but started to feel queasy and decided to evacuate the building and call an ambulance. There were around 35 people in the hall.

He said: "It was all handled extremely quickly. I called the ambulance and two were there within ten minutes.

"As soon as I was able to get to the switch I turned the gas off and the building was evacuated.

"One of the ladies was discharged from the hospital immediately and the second was kept in over night. Both were tested for carbon monoxide."

An investigation revealed the leak happened after the flue snapped off the boiler and instead of the gas being extracted it was leaking into the building.

Mr Beaty said: "I would just like to say that I am terribly sorry that this did happen.

"It is one of those things and nobody could tell it was going to happen. The boiler has been checked recently and it was fine."

The centre remained closed over the weekend but opened in time for the bingo session on Monday.

Mr Beaty said: "We have had to close the centre until the gas men have been to look at it and either repair the flue or put a new one in."

The centre, run by an over-60s club, stood empty for a number of years until it was taken over by The Friends of Senior Citizens and re-named the Neville Community Centre.

It is now well used by the community for everything from bingo to karate sessions and has been nominated for The Northern Echo's environmental competition by volunteers who transformed it.