RESIDENTS in a Newport street spent days trying to identify a mystery smell. They said homes in Conway Street were invaded by a gas-like stink that they noticed last week and which lingered for five days. Residents called out gas experts, but nobody could pinpoint the source of the smell, which appeared in the afternoons.

Jennifer Meredith, 55, said: "Many households have smelled this. It's gone right along the road.

"At first I thought I'd left the gas on but we checked everything. It eventually went, only to come back the next day. This went on until Sunday.

"It was so bad at one point that I had to sit in the car. It's a terrible smell. "I called Wessex Water and they said it was nothing in their system. Could it be something industrial? We just don't know."

The road, in Maindee, runs parallel to the railway lines and is near industrial sites off Corporation Road.

Yesterday afternoon Mrs Meredith said there was no smell in the street, but she was fearful it could reappear by early evening.

Sheila Hodge, 66, a part-time cleaner, said: "It started last Wednesday and it was a strange smell, like petrol.

"Neighbours along the street had noticed it and I've now got a dry, croaky throat because of it.

"It put us off our tea on the first day, and then visitors noticed it at the weekend."

A spokeswoman for utilities company Transco said they took three calls of complaint over the weekend, but inspectors were unable to identify a source.

A Newport council spokesman said environmental health officers had received complaints about the smell and were investigating.