Police attending the scene at RAF Wethersfield (Image: EssexLive)

       Emergency services were scrambled to an asylum seeker centre in a tiny Essex village, after a "loud explosion" was heard on the site.

       Police, fire crews and ambulances were all reported to have been sent to the asylum centre, which was a former RAF base once occupied by the families of British service personnel.

       A local resident overheard a helicopter flying over the site, adding that she saw "two fire trucks, about four police officers that were in unmarked vehicles and numerous ambulances", according to EssexLive.

       Images from the base show a police cordon was in place.

       Fire crews arriving at the Wethersfield base (Image: EssexLive)

       Nicola Brand, who lives near to the former airbase, told EssexLive: "When we first got here there was two fire trucks, about four police officers that were in unmarked vehicles and numerous ambulances. Then a helicopter was overhead. They went up to the gates, they have taped it all off inside.

       "A gatesman said it was quite a loud explosion."

       Emergency services have now left the scene and the police cordon has been removed.

       In a statement, Essex fire service said: "Firefighters were called to the Wethersfield base, Finchingfield at 1.18pm.

       "On arrival crews found that the pressure in a fire suppression system had built up and created a small hole in the roof of a disused building on the edge of the site.

       "Crews worked with the site to make the scene safe. No one was injured or had to be evacuated."

       The fire service told EssexLive that four crews from Braintree, Halstead and Saffron Walden all attended the scene. The Urban Search and Resue team was also in attendance.

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