Thirty five firefighters were called to tackle a building fire on the outskirts of a north Norfolk village tonight.

The blaze was originally reported to be a barn, but crews arrived to discover it was a storage shed on land off Middle Street at Trimingham near Cromer.

Fire officer in charge John Baker said two passers by had spotted the fire at around 8.45pm and alerted two women living on the site nearby.

Five crews took 30 minutes to put out the blaze in a asbestos-cement sheet building measuring about 15m by 10m.

It mainly contained books which had been collected by one of the owners over the years.

The building and contents were destroyed but the crews, using compressed air and foam smothered the fire and stopped it spreading to other property nearby, said Mr Baker.

The residents on site were unaffected by the blaze, believed to have been caused by accident ignition, he added.

Two crews were expected to remain on the site until around midnight to damp down the area.

Crews from North Walsham, Mundesley, Cromer, Sheringham and Fakenham attended the incident, and an ambulance was also on stand by.