The Marine Hotel, Tankerton, was evacuated yesterday evening after staff discovered smoke in the building.

Fire crews were called to the hotel in Marine Parade at around 7pm yesterday evening after a member of staff spotted smoke in a stair way up from the basement of the building.

The fire had self extinguished by the time the emergency services arrived but the building had been fully evacuated as a precaution.

The hotel boasts 31 rooms and around 16 people were evacuated from the site.

Richard Judge, watch manager, said: “This was a small electrical fire and it had self extinguished before we got there.

“We went to check it was safe and the building was evacuated for about 30 minutes.”There were no reported injuries.