Hundreds of shoppers had to be evacuated from the county’s biggest shopping centre after a car fire flooded it with smoke.

The car fire caused chaos at Churchill Square in Brighton on a busy Easter Saturday just after 12.30pm.

A dog had to be rescued from one of three damaged cars, while shoppers were not allowed back inside for two-and-a-half hours.

The fire started after a car had burst into flames on level three of the mall’s car park and spread to two cars either side of it.

Antoine Coevoet, 21, from Wilmington, caught a glimpse of the initial fire.

He said: “I was walking back to my van and I saw the car start smouldering.

“It was new, so it must’ve been something to do with the electrics or something, because that’s where it started.

“The alarm started going off straight away and the staff from Churchill Square were straight over.

“They stopped letting people in and told people that were already through the barriers to drive straight out.

“I managed to get out, and by the time I’d driven to Palace Pier the fire engines were already passing me.”

As the smoke spread through the car park and through doors into the shopping centre, Matt Lloyd, station manager for Hove and Roedean, and his team made the decision to evacuate the building.

He said: “It was on level three of the car park, and although the fire was only in three cars, the smoke was filling the whole floor and was making its way up through the doors and into the shops.

“Smoke was travelling really quickly, so we made the decision to evacuate the centre.

“We put the fire out quickly, but the sheer amount of smoke meant there was a little delay.

“There was a dog in one of the cars which we managed to rescue successfully and it was reunited with its owner, who was very relieved.”

Shoppers waited in the rain before eventually being allowed back in just after 3.15pm.

Ben Langhorne, 20, from Albourne, said: “It was pretty crazy. We were waiting around outside the entrance and the manager from Churchill Square would come out and give us updates about when it would re-open, but half and hour would be 45 minutes and that would turn into an hour and a half.

“I’m quite a hardy guy, but it was getting pretty cold out in my hoody there with the rain.”

The cause of the fire is thought to have been accidental and there were no reported injuries.

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Dan Whitehouse, 21, from Brighton will never forget his first day in work when he was evacuated just hours into his trial shift at H&M.

He said: “They were just showing me around and that sort of stuff and we noticed a load of people moving outside.

“Nobody really knew what was happening and there were all sorts of rumours going around, nobody was really sure.

“We gathered outside and the manager called out the register, so at least that gave me a chance to get to know everyone’s names.

“But we were outside the front opposite Western Road and the smell of smoke was really strong, so we knew it was serious if it was coming from the other side of the centre.”