MORE than a hundred people were evacuated from a Southampton hotel this evening over a fire scare.

Seven appliances from across the city raced to Hotel Ibis off West Quay Road at around 7 after fire alarms went off throughout the building.

But after a 30-minute inspection of the building no fire was found and guests were allowed to return.

A spokesman for the fire service said: “In the end we put it down to a problem with the alarm system as they went off again when we were resetting them. It came through to us as a fire because a member of staff said they saw smoke but we did not find anything.”

Hotel staff confirmed the alarm and that guests were evacuated as a safety procedure but declined to comment further.

Three appliances attended from St Mary’s Fire Station and one each from Hightown and Redbridge, with the special equipment unit and elevated platform also on the scene.