Total, the French oil group, has been accused of putting hundreds of residents living near the site of a vast fuel depot explosion through years of "unnecessary struggle" after abandoning its defence to their compensation claims yesterday.

The volte-face on the fourth day of a civil lawsuit leaves the company exposed to as much as £700m in damages, unless it can show that Chevron, its joint venture partner in the Buncefield depot, near Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, should shoulder some of the responsibility.