A GROUP of young men were evacuated from a flat after it caught fire.

Fire crews responded to reports of a fire in a first floor flat in Borrowdale Avenue, Shadsworth, just after 11am today.

Three men, aged between 17 and 19, were inside the property but smoke alarms alerted them to the fire and escaped the building 'safely', a fire spokesman confirmed.

The cause of the fire is under investigation and no-one has been reported injured.

A fire spokesman said: "We were called to reports of a flat fire in Borrowdale Avenue.

"There was some damage to the bedroom of the first floor flat.

"There were three people inside but the smoke alarms alerted them to the fire and made their own escape outside the building."