Loughborough fire: Huge blaze at HSBC bank spreads to town hall

A huge blaze which has ripped through the building of an HSBC bank in Leicestershire has spread to the neighbouring Loughborough town hall.

Eight fire crews are currently at the scene in Market Place, Loughborough and a number of eyewitnesses have captured flames rising into the air.

Charnwood Borough Council has confirmed Loughborough Town Hall has also been evacuated, with a show that was due to take place at the site tonight being cancelled.

Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service is urging people to avoid the area.

In a tweet from the service, it reads: "We currently have eight appliances in attendance at an incident in Market Place, Loughborough"We'd like to remind everybody to avoid the area."

The service says it has crews from Loughborough, Coalville, Ashby, Birstall, Eastern, Western, Uppingham and Southern fire stations.

A high reach appliance from Birstall fire station is also at the scene.

Jonathan Morgan, leader of Charnwood Borough Council, posted about the blaze on Twitter.

He wrote: "Huge fire at HSBC in centre of Loughborough - please avoid the town centre to allow fire crews access to tackle the blaze."

Charnwood Borough Council also tweeted about the incident.

The tweet reads: "We are aware of the fire in Loughborough town centre. Emergency services are on the scene.

"The fire is near to @LboroTownHall and therefore we have evacuated the building and tonight's show has now been cancelled."

Loughborough Town Hall also tweeted: "LTH confirms tonights show has been cancelled due to this current incident.

"Thank you for your understanding and we will contact all effected ticket holders in due course."

A spokesperson for HSBC has spoken in the wake of the fire which has engulfed their Loughborough branch today.

They said: "We are aware there is an incident at our Loughborough branch where the Fire Service is in attendance.

"It is too early to tell what, if any, damage has been caused to the branch, but we will provide an update on when the branch will be reopen when we can."