A FIRE in a York city centre restaurant led to a neighbouring flat being evacuated and several shops being cordoned off.

The blaze broke out in a first-floor office at the Bombay Spice restaurant in Goodramgate at about 11.30am yesterday. Shops along one half of the street were taped off as firefighters from York and Tadcaster tackled the flames.

Restaurant owner Ali Ahsan discovered the fire after returning to the building for a morning meeting. He told The Press: “I arrived with my accountant and when we got in, we saw a fire in a room upstairs.

“Sometimes staff stay there and that’s where the fire started, but we don’t know how it happened. One room, an office, has been gutted.” Despite the blaze, Mr Ahsan, who has run the restaurant for more than four years, said he would remain open for business. One of those evacuated by officers from her adjoining flat was 21-year-old Alex Giecewicz.

She said: “I heard the fire alarm and we could smell the smoke and then we heard the fire brigade telling everyone to get out.

“Now we are just waiting to get back into flat.”

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service said: “We got the call at 11.28am and we sent four appliances – two from York, our aerial ladder platform and one from Selby.

“It was a fire on the first floor of a flat and we sent in four breathing apparatus wearers.

“The fire was put out in about ten minutes.”