Mystery of Shropshire dumped chemicals goes on

Environmental experts still do not know just how many drums of unidentified chemicals have been found on an abandoned lorry at a Shropshire airfield and say they are only a third of the way through removing the material – which could have been there for several years.

Contractors have so far removed 30 drums from an articulated lorry found on a minor road leading to Sleap Airfield, near Wem.

And they said today that they are just one third of the way through the clean-up operation.

But they have said it will still be another two weeks before the unknown substance in the drums is identified and removed.

A passer-by reported the abandoned lorry on July 20 after noticing a leak.

The drums, which contain chemicals and powders, are partly corroded and it is believed they could have been there for several years.

The Environment Agency was called in and an exclusion zone was set up.

They carried out checks to make sure the contents did not pose any environmental risk and called in specialist contractors who began to remove the drums one by one at the beginning of the month.

Jessica Campbell, spokeswoman for the Environment Agency, said today: "The clean-up operation began on August 1 and is going well.

"The contractors have removed 30 drums so far and said they do not know how many there are in total but they are about one third of the way through the lorry.

"They are expected to have completed the clean up in two weeks."

She added: "The substance has not been identified because they are testing as they go along and taking samples but the results have not come back yet. We will have the results once everything has been removed."