A man was injured and a woman had to be rescued after a fire tore through a block of flats.

Firefighters had to save a woman from a six-storey residential block in Errol Street, Barbican, after a blaze tore through the building and damaged most of a first-floor flat.

A man was also treated at the scene for smoke inhalation by the London Ambulance Service which was called at 6.57am on Sunday (December 31).

The woman had to be saved via an internal staircase wearing a fire escape hood, aided by firefighters with breathing apparatus.

The Brigade said the blaze was brought under control by 8.18am.

Crews from Shoreditch, Dowgate, Soho and Whitechapel fire stations attended.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.