A blaze at a Dorset food production factory has caused an industrial estate to be shut down as firefighters battle at the scene.

A total of six crews have been tackling a fire that broke out in the boiler room of Dorset Foods factory at Shaftesbury's Longmead Industrial Estate.

Fire engines from Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Yeovil, Tisbury and Warminster plus an aerial appliance from Yeovil were called to the scene at around 11.16am today.

Police have been in attendance to close the road into the industrial estate. It has since been reopened.

A spokesman for Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "We received a call at  11:16am this morning about a fire on Longmead Industrial Estate, Shaftesbury. Crews from Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Tisbury, Warminster, Sturminster Newton, a support unit from Sherborne and an ALP from Yeovil. 

"Firefighters found a well-developed fire in the boiler room of a commercial building - due to the high temperatures, crews are working with site personnel to cool it down and make it safe."

The building was evacuated and nobody has been injured, the fire service said, although it is not currently known how many people were on site at the time.

The fire service said heat and smoke have now reduced "significantly", and the majority of crews have now left - however firefighters from Tisbury and Shaftesbury are still on scene to monitor the conditions.

A Dorset Police spokesman said: "We were called at 11.36am on Monday August 10 by the fire service to a report of a large fire at Dorset Chilled Foods on Longmead in Shaftesbury.

"Officers have attended the scene to assist with closing the road."

A spokesman for Addo, the company that owns the factory, said some employees have been able to return to work at the Shaftesbury site.

 “We can confirm that there has been a fire in one of our boiler rooms at the Dorset site this afternoon," the spokesman said.

"The fire was extinguished quickly, a full evacuation was made and nobody was injured.

"Our colleagues have returned to work in two of our units on the Longmead Industrial Estate and we are just awaiting the all clear from the senior fire chiefs, to ensure that our employees can return to work safely in the third.”