Council offices were evacuated this morning after a fire broke out on the top floor.

Damage to the Canterbury City Council headquarters, in Military Road, is now being assessed ahead of a clean-up operation.

Fire crews prevented the blaze from spreading to other areas of the site and all staff inside the building were safely evacuated without injury.

Council spokesman Rob Davies said: "We'd like to say a huge thank you to Kent Fire and Rescue Service for their very swift response, which restricted the fire to a small part of the upper floor.

"The work of their crews prevented it from being a more serious incident and we are very grateful.

"The small number of staff who were in the building were safely evacuated and nobody was hurt.

"We are in the process of assessing the damage and the scale of the clean-up operation.

"As most of our staff are working from home because of the pandemic, there should be no disruption to the services we provide."

The council is planning on eventually moving out of the sprawling base in Military Road, but the move has been delayed due to the pandemic.

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