STORES SELL OUT OF GAS MASKS

LOCAL army surplus stores have been selling out of gas masks as concern about the possibility of a terrorist gas attack increased this week.

The shops have also seen an increase in demand for protection suits and boots, ration packs, and emergency supplies.

Manager of MFC Supplies in Hailsham, Dave Calloway, has seen more than seventy S10 British Army gas masks, generally considered to be the best respirators in the world, move from the shelves in less than two days.

At Stringtown Supplies in Polegate, individual orders worth up to 1,600 for gas masks and NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) protection suits have been taken from all over the country.

Proprietor of the store, Clive Hodgson, said he was now having to buy in Russian-made gas masks as supplies of the more expensive S10 models were becoming difficult to obtain.

I m having to ration filters down to one per gas mask, he said. Before this panic I was selling about one a fortnight. Now it s gone berserk.

To kit oneself out with the full NBC protection gear including suit, gloves, over-boots and gas mask would cost in the region of 195, according to Mr Hodgson.

The things people are buying are the actual models that our army would use in an emergency situation, he added. Someone was telling me that people are walking around the London Underground with gas mask haversacks.

I expect that my shop is one of the safest places to be in Sussex at the moment.

MFC in Hailsham recently received an order from Canary Wharf in London for twenty 14.95 respirators fitted with S10 filters. By Wednesday they had completely sold out of gas masks and suits.

We ve spent two days on the look out for more supplies, but if we do find something then the suppliers will probably have doubled or tripled the normal price, said Mr Calloway. People coming into the shop are genuinely worried.

I don t really know how serious the situation is, but reports have suggested that something could happen.

This panic buying is an echo of the situation in America, where emergency supplies and stocks of gas masks have been exhausted. NBC protection suits, when available, can be bought in olive, camouflage and desert camouflage designs. Gas masks are likely to cost between 14.95 and 100, with the all-important filters available at similar prices.