FIRE crews used decontamination procedures that would be used in the event of a terrorist attack when they were called to a chemical spill yesterday.

A major incident response team, consisting of four fire engines and a specialist decontamination unit, were sent to Shotley Bridge Hospital, near Consett, County Durham, when firefighters received a report of a chemical spillage within the grounds at 1.30pm.

When they got there, they found a man had split sulphuric acid on himself, but there had only been a minor leak, which firefighters believe happened as the acid was being delivered.

Nobody else was affected and the man was assessed within the hospital and then taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham, suffering from sulphuric acid inhalation.

Station officer Steve Wharton, from the fire brigade, said: "The original call came in as a major incident, so we treated it as such.

"The man was not too seriously injured, but from our point of view, it gave us a major opportunity to test our decontamination equipment.

"It is not the same equipment that would be used in a terrorist attack, but it gave us the chance to test our procedures for decontamination.

"It is the same process, but on a smaller scale. The crews would have assessed the situation and done a full surveillance to check for contamination."