More than 100 firefighters are tackling a blaze at a five-star hotel in central London.
Huge plumes of smoke were seen emerging from the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge, a week after concluding “the most extensive restoration in its 115-year history”.
London Fire Brigade said the cause of the flames was yet unknown and it was called shortly before 4 pm.
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Twenty-five fire engines are at the scene and London Ambulance Service informed that it had sent a “number of resources” including its hazardous area response team.
A tradesman working at the hotel said he saw a “big fire” on the roof before raising the alarm.
Just evacuated Mandarin Oriental hotel to see this…. absolutely crazy! So impressed by the organisation in bringing everyone to safety #knightsbridge #mandarinoriental pic.twitter.com/1837pi4uoD
— Anna Whiteley (@AnnaWhiteley) June 6, 2018
The 19-year-old lift engineer, who gave his name as Harry, said: “I said (to my colleague) ‘Lee, there’s a fire over there, let’s get out of the building. Get out the lift shaft, I’m being serious’.
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“We ran down the stairs and went and got the scaffolder out of the loading bay.”
He said the builders on the roof had been cutting materials and doing other work during the day.
“I could see the orange flames on the roof,” he said.