Fire engulfs London's five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel

  • Updated
  • 07/06/2018

Dozens of guests have been evacuated from a five star hotel in London after a fire broke out. 

Thick black smoke could be seen billowing from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, just a week after it had undergone "the most extensive restoration in its 115-year history," the Daily Telegraph reports. 

The alarm was raised shortly after 4pm local time, and by just after 6pm the London fire brigade said it was under control, the Guardian reports. 

Pop singer Robbie Williams was among the guests staying at the 12-storey hotel, located between Hyde Park and the Knightsbridge shopping district. 

The London fire brigade said 20 fire engines and around 120 fire-fighters attended the scene, tackling a "fire on the roof of a hotel". 

The officers feared the fire could spread and closed nearby shops and restaurants. 

"Suddenly we were told to get out," an investment banker, Gerry Johnson, told the Telegraph. 

"There's a suggestion the fire started on the roof of the Mandarin, where they have been carrying out building work," Johnson said. 

The hotel was undergoing renovation work designed to confirm its "position as one of the best in the world," the owners of the international hotel chain announced recently.  

The hotel has hosted royal family members in the past, even throwing an event for Prince William and Catherine Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on the eve of their wedding in 2011. 

The scenes at the hotel have brought back memories of last year's Grenfell Tower fire, which claimed the lives of 72 people. 

It was Britain's deadliest domestic fire since World War II and raised questions about UK social housing, building regulations and fire safety rules.

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