HASLEMERE town centre was closed off early on Friday as a fire broke out in flats above a hair salon at the top of the High Street.

An eyewitness working nearby said she first realised something was wrong at about 5.20am, with the emergency services reacting quickly when fire broke out in the roof above Headcase Barbershop behind the old Town Hall.

Fire officers were still working to make the scene safe more than three hours later following fears that part of the building might collapse.

Haslemere mayor Sahran Abeysundara arrived to inspect the damage and talk to the emergency services as traffic coming south down the High Street was diverted round the town centre via West Street.

The salon’s owner, Mandy Coombes, arrived on the scene in pyjamas to deal with crisis, posting on Facebook: “Sadly we’ll be closed today (and maybe tomorrow!) as we’ve had a fire above our shop! Sorry guys. Nobody was hurt thankfully so we’re now going to try and get this shop back in shape for you as quickly as possible.”

The incident caused major disruption during the morning rush hour, with access via the Petworth Road entirely cut off.

Haslemere resident Ivan Macquisten, who took these photographs, said: “The emergency services were there in force and had everything under control, which was very reassuring. From what I could see, the real difficulty will be ongoing work to repair the building and how that might affect traffic flow at the top of the High Street.

“It must have been quite a shock for anyone living in the building, not to mention the salon owner. It’s a popular business and I wish them well in getting things back to normal as soon as possible.”