Tesco Extra Watford was twice evacuated this morning as three fire engines were called due to smoke in the store.

Reports of a fire at the supermarket, in Lower High Street, this morning were “fortunately” found to be a false alarm, Herts Fire and Rescue said, but customers were still evacuated.

At 11.07am the service was called to the scene, sending the three fire engines.

“On arrival, the crews found that the store had been evacuated and there was light smoke in the building,” a spokesperson said.

“Firefighters searched the building and determined that fortunately this was a false alarm caused by burnt cooking.”

According to a customer, the store had already been evacuated around 20 minutes earlier but at that time they did not see any fire crews and did not notice any smoke.

It was only during the second alarm that they could apparently tell there was smoke in the store.

The Watford Observer has contacted Tesco for more information.