Work was today under way to clean a school playground of sewage after heavy rain blocked drains causing it to spill out.

Pupils at Rayleigh's Glebe Infant and Junior Schools were kept away while council workers and staff cleared the area of waste.

Heavy rain caused the drains to become blocked, allowing their contents to bubble out onto the playing surface.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.