FORTY firefighters were called out to a massive blaze which broke out early this morning in a block of flats, leaving two people in hospital for smoke inhalation.

The fire was reported at 3.35am today in a bedroom of one of the flats in Valley Way, Newmarket.

Two crews from Newmarket attended the scene but the blaze was so serious that assistance was soon requested from Burwell and Swaffham Bulbeck in Cambridgeshire, as well as a crew from Mildenhall and a turntable ladder from Bury St Edmunds.

They arrived to find the top floor middle flat well alight and fire crews used four breathing apparatus and two hosereels to try and get the flames under control, but by 4.35am, the fire had spread to the roof space and adjacent flats.

Firefighters using breathing apparatus to go in and tackle the flames had to be pulled out, and crews fought the blaze using jets and a turntable ladder, eventually getting the flames under control by 6.40am.

It was initially thought that people could still be inside the three-storey block of six flats above a shop, but the flats were quickly evacuated.

Paramedics took two people suffering smoke inhalation to West Suffolk Hospital for treatment.