A gas leak in Twickenham town centre caused major traffic congestion and delays after King Street was closed.
Both sides of the street have now re-opened according to Transport for London, but major disruption was expected for some time to come.
London Fire Brigade and the police attended the incident, which caused some shops to be evacuated.
Areas surrounding King Street were cleared of pedestrians and sealed off.
The gas board also attended. This incident was caused by a builder drilling through a gas service in Boots, according to the National Grid.
A spokesman for the National Grid said: "We got a call at 3.25pm to reports of a gas escape at Boots in King Street, Twickenham.
"It appears builders working in it have damaged a gas service pipe.
"We have got engineers on-site at the moment repairing the escape.
"Fire services and police were already there when we got there and we were told they evacuated 10 properties."
In the early part of the incident no traffic was allowed in York Street from the junction with Arragon Road.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We were informed by the fire brigade and road closures have been put in place.
"Pedestrians have been cleared and some shops have been evacuated."
Road works were already being carried out by Richmond Council on the street, at the junction with York Street and London Road.
Buses were put on diversion while the repair work was carried out.
@ZooRabbit7777 said on Twitter: "Gas leak in Twickenham town centre + road works = traffic at a standstill #AVOID".
Billy Cally tweeted: "Dont go anywhere near twickenham, gas leak."
Anyone thinking of coming through Twickenham don't. London Road closed and now Heath Road closed because of gas leak. It's chaos.
— Steven Jones (@elstjo) August 13, 2014
Dont go anywhere near twickenham, gas leak.
— Billy C (@billycally) August 13, 2014
Stuck in the middle of twickenham because of a gas leak😒
— Ellie Forrester† (@Missi_Ellie) August 13, 2014
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