MASSES of thick black smoke forced emergency services to evacuate most of a town centre while more than 100 firefighters fought a major shop blaze.

Stores shut their doors and shoppers were asked to leave the area while 15 crews fought the fire at Matalan on the Strood Retail Park.

The blaze is believed to have started in a first-floor warehouse at around 8.50am on Saturday.

The store had not opened to customers and all staff already inside were accounted for.

Police evacuated all stores in the retail park including B&Q, Next and Argos as well as the Co-op and McDonald’s.

Crews from Medway and Strood fire stations were first on the scene and entered the steel-clad building with thermal imaging cameras but it soon became clear the building was too dangerous and they were withdrawn.

John Pereira, incident commander for Kent Fire and Rescue, said: "It was only a matter of time before the roof collapsed."

A spokesman for Kent Police said: “An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway."

A spokesman for Matalan said: "All staff with jobs at the Strood store were contacted over the weekend. In the short term they will be deployed to other stores but we cannot give a longer term diagnosis."

FULL STORY IN MONDAY'S MEDWAY MESSENGER