A MAN has complained after a late night explosion that ’sounded like a plane had come down’ in one of Ivybridge Community College’s playing fields.

Brian Ware, who lives in Montgomery Close said he had just gone to bed last Tuesday night when he heard the ’huge explosion’.

Making enquiries the next day, he discovered that the explosion had been caused by the school disposing of some potentially dangerous chemicals.

Mr Ware said: ’The explosion was so big it made the dog go absolutely crackers, the windows rattled, and I thought it was going to blow the roof off. I thought at first a plane had come down or something.

’There was no notification from the college or anything. Everyone that walked past our house this morning was asking whether we had heard it last night, and what it was.’

Last week, schools received a reminder from advisory body the Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Equipment on how to correctly store the substance 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine.

The chemical, also known as 2,4-DNP, is used in A-level chemistry lessons and can become dangerous if it is allowed to dry out.

It is supposed to be stored in a labelled jar kept inside an outer jar topped up with water as a precaution.

Deputy principal of Ivybridge Community College, Gill Taylor said: ‘We received notification on Monday, October 31 that all secondary schools in the country had to organise the removal of a certain chemical for health and safety reasons.

‘We were informed that we had to contact the police, who would then notify the Bomb Squad and that they would organise the safe removal of the product.

‘We are aware that some residents were concerned by the noise that this created and we can understand why they might be upset.

‘However, the college had no control of when, how and where this would be undertaken and we merely followed the police requests and consequently we were unable to provide any prior notification to houses adjacent to the college.

‘Therefore, we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused, but the health and safety of our students is of paramount importance to us.’