Police discovered a mattress on fire in the stairwell of a shopping centre.

Officers were called to the Broadway Shopping Centre in Maidstone following reports of an alarm being activated at 3.13am.

A fire was then found in a stairwell of the premises and the fire service arrived on the scene half an hour later.

Two fire engines attended and crews arrived to find a mattress alight.

They used a hose reel jet to extinguish the fire, before clearing the area of smoke with a positive pressure ventilation fan.

Firefighters logged they had put out the flames just after 4am.

The cause is not yet known and inquiries to establish the full circumstances are ongoing.

Lidl and Matalan, two stores in the shopping centre, have been contacted for a comment.

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