Police have sealed off a town centre street as fire crews tackle a blaze in a first floor flat.

Three fire engines have pulled up outside a four-storey building in Pudding Lane, Maidstone, and firefighters are carrying out searches in the building.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service said they were called at 2.30pm to reports of a fire.

Customers at Double 1 Nails said a group of five of them were evacuated at around 2.45pm when someone knocked on the shop window and had noticed a fire in one of the flats above.

One said: “We didn’t even know it was happening until then. It was all dealt with and under control pretty quickly. We went back in about half an hour later.”