Restaurant left damaged by smoke

POLICE closed a lane of traffic on Newington Road following a small fire in the linen cupboard of a Nepalese restaurant.

Diversions were in place around the Southside of the city and elsewhere for 90 minutes causing considerable traffic problems.

The fire was sparked at about 2.30pm yesterday inside the Yak and Yeti but no staff or customers were in the premises at the time. It is not thought to be suspicious.

Fire crews used six breathing apparatus and a hose reel to extinguish the blaze but the restaurant is mostly smoke damaged rather than scorched by flames.

A neighbour alerted the fire brigade after seeing smoke pouring from the building but after thoroughly ventilating the premises firefighers returned to their stations at around 4.15pm.