Firefighters evacuated a block of flats in the early hours of this morning after a vehicle in an underground car park caught alight.

The emergency services were called to Nelson House, off London Road, Greenhithe, at 4.27am when smoke from a car parked under the block of flats started billowing into the building.

The crew from Dartford evacuated the properties as a precaution and extinguished the blaze, eventually leaving after around an hour.

A spokesman, who declined to give his name, said: “Smoke from the car got in to the common area so we evacuated them for safety.

“They got back in half an hour later after we vented the building.”