A supermarket in Ashford town centre is set to reopen tomorrow after initial fears that it would be closed until the new year following an electrical fire on Monday night.

Firefighters were called after a blaze started in the storage freezers of Lidl and spread across the store room.

Crews were called to the store in New Street at midnight, and battled the flames for two hours.

The fire was noticed by supermarket staff members who raised the alarm and evacuated the building.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service sent four engines which arrived five minutes later, and used a thermal imaging camera to scan the single-storey building to pinpoint the source.

They then used a hose reel jet to bring the fire under control, after smoke had spread throughout the store and the Park Club gym next door.

Investigators believe the fire spread from one of the freezers in the store room to other stock, but say they are not treating it as suspicious.

Lidl remained closed yesterday on Tuesday and today Wednesday while staff moved damaged stock out of the shop, and the company initially reported that the store was likely to be temporarily closed until the new year.

The store had previously reopened in June 2014 after a lengthy refurbishment which took several months.

That revamp included adding a bakery, and a new entrance and exit lobby as well as adding new cladding to make the building lighter and more modern in appearance.

A Lidl spokesman said: “We can confirm that at approximately midnight on Monday an electrical fire occurred at our Ashford store.

“I’m pleased to confirm that they are indeed re-opening the store at 8am on Thursday December 22.

“The store team have done an absolutely incredible job alongside our contractors, which means that we are able to re-open earlier than anticipated. We’d really like to extend our thanks to all the teams at Lidl who have really pulled together and been instrumental in helping to get the store back up and running.

“All the stock from the store has been returned to the warehouse where we are currently assessing what is suitable to be redistributed to our other stores or donated to our charity partners. We can assure you that no edible food will unnecessarily go to waste.

“We’d like to thank our store colleagues and the emergency services for their swift action and response. Thankfully there were no injuries."

The store will re-open with Father Christmas and face painting for children: "As a way of thanking everyone for their patience, we are going to make a bit of an event out of the reopening.

"The team in Ashford have been absolutely incredible and pulled out all the tops to get the store reopen.

"They have just really pulled it out the bag and we're all really heartwarmed by their hard work."

Teams of workmen and staff were seen hard at work carrying our repairs and cleaning inside the store today.