EMERGENCY services were called to deal with a spillage of a white substance at the junction of Martley Road and Henwick Road in Worcester.

A member of the public, who thought the spillage was milk, alerted the fire brigade at about 11am yesterday.

But the liquid could not be milk because it was too thick and had a deep blue tinge, said David Denning senior manager for maintenance at the Highways Partnership.

"We had to wait to get the go-ahead from county scientific services to analyse the spillage to find out if it was toxic, corrosive or acidic," he said.

Fortunately, the substance was found to be harmless. But scientific services were unable to tell what it was and had to take a sample back to the laboratories for analysis.

Mr Denning estimated there was around 50 litres of the substance, and 50 bags of absorbent pellets were needed to soak it up.

The fire brigade's two pumps and three other support vehicles left the scene after an hour.

The substance was later found to be an emulsion of rubber used in industry said Bob Stevens county analyst for Worcestershire Scientific Services.

"We can only guess that it must have fallen off a passing lorry," he said.