Two people had to be rescued from a block of flats in Banbury early on Saturday when an unattended chip pan caught fire.

Two fire crews from Banbury and Deddington were called to tackle the blaze, which broke out in a first-floor flat in Greenhill Court at around 1.45am.

The special rescue tender from the service headquarters at Kidlington was also called to the scene, and firefighters had to wear breathing apparatus because of the dense smoke in the property.

Two people had managed to escape from a ground-floor flat before the arrival of the fire teams, who then led another person to safety from the smoke-logged flat on the first floor.