SCORES of shoppers were left stranded in Winchester over the weekend after a potentially explosive fire closed the city's Bar End park-and-ride site.

Emergency services sealed off the busy Bar End road into the city on Saturday afternoon and put into force a 24-hour exclusion zone on an area 400m around the fire, right next to the packed park-and-ride facility.

Dozens of visitors to Winchester were left having to find alternative ways to get home, as those who had left their cars in the car park were only allowed to retrieve them after 3.30pm yesterday.

The problem was caused by unregistered gas canisters that had been stored under a lean-to shed in the rear garden of one of the houses that backs on to the car park from Bar End Road.

An out-of-control garden fire set the shed alight shortly after 3pm on Saturday, so when firefighters arrived to put it out, they found potentially explosive gas cylinders in the middle of the blaze. One house and two businesses next to the blaze were evacuated while other people living further up Bar End Road were warned to stay indoors.

Even the environmental campaigners protesting over the Bar End park-and-ride extension scheme were asked to leave, though one man, Bryan Reed, did stay behind, crouched in one of the tunnels in case their camp was retaken by bailiffs while the fire was raging.

Three fire engines, including the special equipment unit, were sent to tackle the blaze while police officers sealed off the roads leading up to Bar End, diverting traffic coming off the M3 and traffic trying to leave Winchester. It comes just 24 hours after the same road was shut on Friday afternoon following a car crash.

One of those waiting to get back to her car was Emily Poole, 58, a retired teacher from Claylands Road in Bishop's Waltham.

She said: "We were just told we couldn't get into the car park and would have to wait by the road. Then we were moved back to behind the police line because they said there was the chance of an explosion.

"It's going to cause me problems because I was supposed to be back to babysit my granddaughter this evening, and I'm not sure when they're going to let us through to get our cars."