A putrid smell in the offices of Colonial Insurance on Reid Street yesterday drove workers out of the building and forced business to close for a few hours.

A health inspector and City engineers attended but could not determine the source.

A hand-written note on the main door of Colonial Insurance said the office was closed temporarily because of the Corporation of Hamilton.

But Corporation secretary, Roger Sherratt said yesterday that City engineers had gone to the site and determined that it was not emanating from the City sewer system, as many of the workers had believed.

"There was a report of a bad smell in the building, but it was inside the building itself,'' he said, "and was not the sort of smell that sewage gives off.'' According to Mr. Sherratt, the offensive odours smelled more like "hairdressing chemicals''.

Estalyn Harvey head of Government's public health department, confirmed that a health inspector had attended but she said that the smell had disappeared by the time he arrived.

Mr. Sherratt said that the city engineers would work with the health inspector to try to find the source of the problem and Mrs. Harvey said that the company should alert her department as soon as possible, if they experience the foul odour again.