A fire in the centre of Dereham brought part of the town to a standstill today .Firefighters were called to a blaze caused by a ground-floor kitchen fire in the building of Thai restaurant Cho'k Dee, in Quebec Street, just after 1.

A fire in the centre of Dereham brought part of the town to a standstill today .

Firefighters were called to a blaze caused by a ground-floor kitchen fire in the building of Thai restaurant Cho'k Dee, in Quebec Street, just after 1.30pm.

Police cordoned off the street for part of the afternoon as firefighters tackled the blaze.

It had started when Phanom Phukjit, 35, was cooking in the kitchen and the wok he was using caught fire.

Mr Phukjit, who suffered a minor hand injury, had been with his two nieces at the time.

He described the fire as being like an “explosion” and said “It was very big and it happened very quickly.”

“My heart jumped and I was scared,” he added.

He managed to put the fire out but not before the flames were sucked up by the extractor fan causing the flames to spread upwards and set fire to the rafters.

Crew manager Andy Scarlett said it took firefighters about 15 minutes to put out the fire in the roof and nobody was hurt.

Three fire crews attended along with police and ambulance.