FIRE crews battled a blaze at a former hospital overnight.

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service was first called to the Edward Hain Hospital in St Ives shortly after 9.30pm on Tuesday.

Fire engines from St Ives, Hayle and Tolvaddon were sent to the scene, along with a station manager from Penzance.

They arrived to find smoke coming from the building and immeditely asked for more help at the scene.

A spokesperson for the fire service said: "The fourth appliance was sent from St Ives. Due to the size of the incident an Incident Command Unit from St Just was mobilised, along with an Operational Support Unit and additional Wholetime Station Manager from Falmouth."

Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were sent inside to fight the flames, while it was tackled with hoses from outside.

The police were also called to the scene to help manage traffic on the A3047 and the ambulance service was informed, but there were no casualties so they did not need to attend.

At 10.50pm two further fire appliances were requested, to make six at the scene, with the fire escalating.

More firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were sent inside.

The fire was out shortly before 12.30am this morning.

The spokesperson added: "An initial fire investigation has been carried out and the cause is likely to be accidental, possibly due to loose cables in a void.

"In addition to the large number of resources on scene, three additional on-call crews have been on standby providing fire cover in St Ives, Tolvaddon and Falmouth."