A restaurant manager has told how his staff ran to the aid of a takeaway in King's Lynn after its roof caught fire yesterday evening.

Mohammed Ali, from the Spice Inn on London Road, described seeing smoke fill the Istanbul Kebab House as customers waited inside.

His colleague then rushed over to alert staff that a fire had broke out on the roof of their terraced property.

Mr Ali, manager of the Indian restaurant, said: 'When I saw the smoke coming out of the shop, I knew there was a fire. My colleague ran across to see what was going on and they [takeaway staff] said they didn't know.

'There were people inside the takeaway and smoke was coming out of the door. You could hardly see anyone inside. I then saw flames on the top of the roof.'

Emergency services were called to the scene shortly after 9.30pm today to reports of a blaze a 'commercial and residential' property.

Three fire crews from King's Lynn, an aerial ladder platform and a crew from Sandringham attended.

A fire service spokesperson said the fire had spread to the roof of the property.

Crews wearing breathing apparatus used hose reel jets to extinguish the flames.