A portion of North Main Street was closed down for more than two hours Wednesday morning after a motorist crashed into the side of a motel and ruptured a gas line.

Carlos Brown, 37, hit the gas, rather than the brake, of his SUV in the parking lot of the Rodeway Motel, in the 1000 block of North Main Street, around 8 a.m., said Debbie George, spokeswoman for the city.

His vehicle struck a gas line outside the motel, prompting the evacuation of the motel, an adjacent house and the nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken, George said.

No one was injured. However, a couple of blocks of the heavily traveled corridor through downtown Suffolk was shut down for several hours, she said.

Brown, of the 600 block of Pitchkettle Road, was charged with reckless driving.