Sainsbury's on Whiteladies Road evacuated after false alarm

Firefighters were called to Sainsbury's Supermarket at the Clifton Down Shopping Centre after the fire alarms went off.

Hundreds of shoppers were evacuated from the store and car park shortly after 5pm this evening as the alarms blared.

It comes just days after Tescos, further up Whiteladies Road, was gutted by fire.

Fortunately, this was all a false alarm and after about 15 minutes shoppers and staff were allowed back in.

Tesco Express was not so lucky.

Firefighters spent

considerable time digging out sections of a shop roof after fire

broke out in the store.

The alarm was

raised before the shop was open for business and a small number of

staff who had arrived for work managed to get out of the building

before crews arrived on the scene.

It appears the

fire broke out in an office room at the rear of 

the store and when crews arrived on the scene they discovered the

fire had also spread to the space between the ceiling and roof.

Six firefighters

wearing breathing apparatus were initially sent in to the building

and tackled the fire using a high pressure hose reel. However, as

the fire was also in the roof void, they were withdrawn from the

building as crews set to work on cutting away sections of the

roof.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service's Urban

Search and Rescue Team, which carry specialist cutting equipment,

were also deployed to the incident to help cut through the thick

sections of roof and expose the hot spots.

Residents of

nearby flats were evacuated as a precaution during the

incident.

The fire, which

badly damaged the store, is thought to have been caused by an

electrical fault.