Fears of poisonous gas seeping from underground have led to the closure of a Bradford electrical store.

Environmental consultants have been called in to investigate after staff at Maplin Electronics in Hamm Strasse complained of dizziness and nausea.

Since October the building has been closed with staff running a mail-order service from a temporary cabin in the store's car park.

But today retail director Graham Caldwell said the company was still no nearer to finding out what had caused the sicknesses.

He said: "The staff were suffering from headaches, dizziness, skin irritations, drowsiness and feeling generally strange.

"They were checked out by doctors as a precaution and given a clean bill of health but we are concerned enough about this to keep the shop shut.

"It's not good for us to have the building closed. We are paying for it but getting no return."

Mr Caldwell said the company had leased the building for three years from Carpet World, which has a store adjoining the Maplin shop.

But the Carpet World outlet has remained open and branch manager Paul Brannan said none of his staff had complained of feeling unwell.

A spokesman for Bradford environmental protection confirmed it had been contacted by the firm.

"We will continue to liaise with them and offer any help we can to resolve this situation," he said.

A planning department spokesman said: "Maplin's was built on the site of a former textile mill demolished more than 20 years ago. The reservoir behind this site was drained and filled with inert material in 1979."

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