England's preparations for today's Fourth Ashes Test were thrown into disarray by a 5am fire alarm at the team's hotel.

The players were forced to evacuate their Leeds base just hours before facing Australia at Headingley.

England captain Andrew Strauss and his team-mates trooped out of the Radisson SAS when the alarm sounded and were forced to stand out on the pavement for about 20 minutes.

Two fire engines were called to the hotel with players only allowed to return to their rooms once the all-clear was given.

Off-spinner Graeme Swann broke the news on his Twitter website.

He wrote: "Fire alarm? Brilliant!" - an indication of the irritation caused by the emergency.

The players were understood to have been drinking strong coffee this morning in a bid to combat any tiredness resulting from the incident.

The evacuation added to England's problems as they were preparing for the challenge of trying to win the Ashes without talisman Andrew Flintoff, who has a knee injury.

Conspiracy theorists will inevitably focus on whether England - who lead the series 1-0 with two Tests to play - have fallen victim to an Australian dirty tricks campaign.

The hotel admitted such incidents were 'very rare' but vehemently denied an Australian could have infiltrated the hotel and set off the alarm.

A spokeswoman said: "I can confirm the hotel was evacuated due to the fire alarm being activated at 5am. All occupants had to congregate outside the hotel.

"Our prime and continued focus is to ensure the health and safety and wellbeing of our guests and staff. As a matter of course we evacuated the hotel."

The spokeswoman added there had been no complaints received from England players about the evacuation procedure.

Although Flintoff was not ruled out of the Test following yesterday's final practice session, all the signs pointed to him not playing because of his fragile right knee.

England were leaving an announcement as late as possible.

But, having already lost star batsman Kevin Pietersen before the Third Test, it seemed as though they would be robbed of their star all-rounder as well.

England showed their concern even before travelling to Leeds by naming a squad of 14 with an extra batsman, Jonathan Trott, and two more bowlers - Steve Harmison and Ryan Sidebottom - added to the team that drew at Edgbaston earlier this week.