POLICE were forced to evacuate several prisoners when a Hampshire police station was hit by a fire scare.

The mass exodus was launched at Southampton Central Police Station when fire alarms sounded at the high rise building.

More than 30 staff fled the base removing 14 prisoners from the cells and leading them to safety after reports of the smell of smoke.

Now it has emerged that the incident was caused by a major fault to the fire alarms which led the station to be closed for eight hours - meaning prisoners were transferred to cells elsewhere.

Due to the height and nature of the eight-storey block Hampshire Fire and Rescue sent more than 25 firefighters in five fire engines and a number of specialist vehicles when the alarm was raised at 7.40pm on Thursday.

Resources included crews from Hightown, St Mary’s and Redbridge stations, the Area Ladder Platform (ALP) from Eastleigh and two command vehicles.

Crews searched the building to discovered no sign of fire and put it down to a fault with the alarm’s detection system.

Police decided to prevent anyone entering the building until the alarms were fully fixed to ensure they would work properly if a future fire broke out.

The prisoners were transported by vans to cells at stations in Lyndhurst and Basingstoke while engineers were called in.

Officers and staff were also told to work from other bases.

The building eventually opened at 3.40am when the problem was fully fixed.

Superintendent James Fulton said: “Although this situation was unexpected and far from ideal, this shows the effectiveness of our contingency planning and that we can operate in the face of these types of challenges that come our way.”

A police spokeswoman said: “Prisoners were evacuated swiftly and safely in vans according to health and safety guidelines.

“Engineers were called and deemed the fire alarm system faulty.

“The decision was made to evacuate the building as a precaution until the system was fixed and engineers could be certain that the system would work in the event of a fire.”