A major gas leak off the Strand brought an abrupt end to some party-goers' evenings as Heaven night club was evacuated at around 2am on Tuesday (January 23).
Guests at the Villiers Street venue in Charing Cross, which claims to be the "world's most famous gay nightclub", and businesses in the area were evacuated after reports a gas main ruptured in nearby Craven Street.
Witnesses at Heaven nightclub described "chaos" as people tried to leave "as fast as possible".
Emergency services were called to reports of a gas leak in Craven Street, Westminster, at around 2am where, according to London Fire Brigade, high levels of natural gas were detected.
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A London Fire Brigade spokesman said: "More than 1,000 people from the Heaven nightclub and 350 residents and business personnel were evacuated.
"We are assisting police on the Strand after a ruptured gas main was discovered using detection equipment and high levels of natural gas were detected in the atmosphere.
"As a precaution, approximately 1,450 people have been evacuated. They are from a hotel and a nightclub.
"The Strand is completely closed and we are asking people to avoid the area.
"We do not know the cause of the gas leak at this stage. It is ongoing and engineers are down at the scene trying to isolate the leak.
"There are still high readings of natural gas in the area. We are working to sort it out as quickly as possible."
Both Charing Cross and Waterloo East stations were shut, with services diverted into Victoria, Cannon Street and Blackfriars.
A Network Rail spokesman said: "We will reopen these stations as soon as we have clearance from emergency services that it is safe to do so.
"We are sorry for the inconvenience caused."
The Strand, a major route through central London, was closed and a 165-yard (150m) cordon put in place while National Grid engineers tried to isolate the leak.
Cadent, the company in charge of maintaining the gas line, tweeted the leak had been fixed shortly before 10am on Tuesday.
It tweeted: "Thank you for your support today. We have found and fixed the leak on Craven Street. Now carrying out safety checks. Hope to have road open later this morning. Thanks also to Londoners and visitors for your patience."
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