AN ELECTRICAL fire at one of the town's favourite pizza parlours caused traffic to come to a temporary standstill on Thursday morning.

Three fire crews were called to the incident at Pizza Express, opposite St Mary's Butts, after a fire broke out in an electrical cupboard.

Station manager Michael Humphreys from Whitley Wood said: "We are not sure when the alarm was raised, but we have used two breathing apparatus, one Co2 extinguisher and the fire is out."

Several cars and buses were held up in the commotion between 9.15 and 9.40 am, while fire crews ensured that there was no further damage to the building.

Office workers above Pizza Express were startled by the outbreak and were left confused when they had to evacuate the building.

Josh Rawlins, an employee from Wave Group, said: "Our office is above Pizza Express and we were not told to evacuate until 15 minutes had gone by.

"The whole office filled with smoke and went grey. We could smell the smoke but we were sat in our office for a while before we saw it. We then used our common sense and we left the building."

The fire was dealt with promptly and no injuries were reported.