FIREFIGHTERS tackled a fire which tore through a first floor bedroom house at an Oxford hostel yesterday.

Fire crews do not know what caused the fire at Simon House, in Paradise Square at 4.45pm and there are said to be no injuries.

Station Manager Simon Belcher said: "Thanks to the warning given by the fire alarm system everyone was able to get out of the building quickly and safely and then staff called the fire service."

A spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council, Owen Morton, said: "Three fire crews (two from  Rewley Road, one from the Slade) were called to an address on Paradise Street, Oxford at around 4.45pm.

"There was a fire in a first-floor bedroom which was extinguished with a hose reel by fire fighters wearing breathing apparatus."