GAS company bosses have hit out at vandals who smashed a pipe and forced the evacuation of 20 Bolton homes amid fears of an explosion.

Transco workmen are currently digging up a section of the pavement in Bury Road, Breightmet, to replace an old cast iron gas main with modern plastic piping.

But in the early hours of Saturday, one of the holes left by the workmen was targeted by vandals.

The flashing warning lights placed around the roadworks near the junction with Blenheim Road were thrown into the hole and a two inch pipe connected to the main pipe was broken, causing a major escape of gas.

A Transco spokesman said: "This was a senseless act of vandalism by mindless idiots. Gas can be very dangerous."

The alarm was raised by resident John Birch just before 1am after he smelled gas.

He knocked on neighbours' doors to wake them before the emergency services arrived on the scene.

Thirty residents were evacuated from their terraced homes while emergency repairs were carried out. They were given shelter for nearly two hours in the nearby Hare and Hounds pub before being allowed back into their homes.

An engineer wearing breathing apparatus climbed down into the hole and stopped up the leaking pipe.

Workmen with monitoring equipment then tested all the nearby homes to make sure no dangerous pockets of gas had seeped into the buildings. Residents were allowed to return to their homes shortly after 2am.

A section of Bury Road was also closed to traffic while the gas leak was mended.

As police continued their investigation into the incident, residents complained that the exposed gas pipes should have been covered up during the night when workmen were not present.

But the Transco spokesman said it was not practical to cover unearthed gas pipes when work was being undertaken.

He appealed to people to use common sense around roadworks involving gas and urged passers-by not to interfere with the pipes.

"You can't keep filling the hole in and, even if you did cover it with sheeting, people could still move it," said the spokesman.

He criticised the people who interfered with the pipe on Saturday.

"People usually do use a little more common sense," he said."This was a senseless act of vandalism by mindless idiots."

Work on replacing the gas pipes along Bury Road is expected to continue for several weeks.