An electrical fault caused a blaze that saw 25 firefighters attend the Osney Mead industrial estate on Monday.

The small fire broke out at the Oxford University research lab and about 40 students and academics were evacuated from the Southwell Building for thermofluids at about 5.15pm.

Yesterday, university spokesman Pete Wilton said: “I’m told this was an electrical component failure in a distribution board.

“The fire alarm sounded and people were evacuated as a precaution but the problem was dealt with before fire crews arrived.”