SPECIALLY trained firefighters were called to a house in Herd Street in Marlborough after a drum containing chemicals was found during a garden clearance.

The 25-litre plastic drum which had no markings, had started to leak as it was moved and, said a Wiltshire Fire Brigade spokeswoman, some of the chemicals had leached into the soil.

The gardener, who was not named, was rushed to hospital by ambulance after he complained of feeling "a tightness" in his chest after he inadvertently inhaled fumes from the drum.

The brigade spokeswoman said: "The occupiers were having the garden cleared and the gardener came across a drum which had been there for some time. Unfortunately it appears to contain some sort of chemical but is not marked."

Firefighters wearing special suits examined the container but were unable to find any identifying marks.

Station Officer Peter Townsend who was in charge of the operation said there was no way of identifying the liquid in the container.

He said: "We can carry out a litmus test to ascertain whether it is an acid, but we will not be able to identify the substance further than that."

SO Townsend said: "We will be leaving the sealed container in the garden and the householder will have to make the arrangements to have it moved by a specialist firm."