SEVENTEEN residents had to be evacuated to safety after a fire in a block of flats.

A woman alerted the fire brigade to a blaze in her ground floor flat on Ampleforth Road, Thamesmead, shortly before 9pm on Thursday.

She managed to escape unharmed but 17 others had to be evacuated by firemen wearing breathing apparatus after smoke filled the flat's stairwell.

Several residents were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

Eight adults and nine children were taken to Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, suffering from smoke inhalation.

Femi Agibogun lives above the flat where the fire started. He said: "We evacuated because the smoke was everywhere but the people upstairs didn't leave until the fire brigade came.

"There was smoke everywhere and the stairwell was filled with it.

"We were told not to come back in if there was too much smoke in our appartment but I came back in about three hours later. There was a lot of smoke that I had to clean up."

Crews from Erith and Plumstead fire stations attended the fire which is thought to have been sparked by an electrical fault in the front room of the ground floor flat.

Fire services are still investigating the incident.