Blaze at Brighton Grand Hotel

Ten fire engines were sent to the Grand Hotel, in Brighton, East Sussex. The fire took two hours to douse.

No-one was injured, although about 400 guests were taken to the nearby Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel as a precaution.

The Grand Hotel was bombed by the IRA on October 12, 1984 in a bid to kill then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher during the Tory Party conference. Five people died in the explosion and the hotel was completely renovated afterwards.

Stacey Simmons, 34, who witnessed Saturday night's fire, said: "I saw thick smoke coming from the building and thought I was imagining it. With the history of the hotel and the IRA bombing in the 80s, your immediate reaction is to think that it is a terrorist-related incident. But obviously it just turned out to be something a little less dramatic."

Group commander Ian Alexander, of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said the fire started in a sixth-floor bedroom.

It was initially thought to have ignited on a lower floor, but Mr Alexander explained: "The extraction system was taking the smoke from the sixth floor and pumping it down."

He said the cause of the fire was under investigation. He praised the Grand Hotel for its role in the evacuation of guests.

He said about 50 firefighters from both East and West Sussex were involved in the operation.

The A259, which runs along the seafront in front of the hotel, was closed for about two hours while firefighters tackled the blaze.