Brighton and Hove was shrouded in black smoke as the last remaining buildings on the historic West Pier were engulfed in flames.

The Victorian pier was reduced to little more than a charred skeleton after a fire started by an arsonist flared up once more, gutting the historic concert hall.

The stench of fire choked the city yesterday afternoon as strong winds fanned the embers of the weekend blaze back into raging flames.

Firefighters were called back at just before noon yesterday but decided the risk of trying to quell the blaze in the condemned building was too great.

Instead, crowds gathered on the rain-lashed front to watch the building, crumpled and broken, disappear beneath a cloud of smoke.

At 3.30pm the domed kiosk, one of the few structures to remain relatively unscathed, broke away and crashed in to the waves, engulfed in flame.

Within four hours just the steel frame remained.

Acrid fumes were pushed by the south-west wind to form a choking pall over the city centre.

Dozens of pigeons which had made their home on the romantic ruins were washed up on the shore, having been burned alive.

Police are treating the fire as arson and have appealed for information.

Although they have been unable to get on to the structure to retrieve evidence, they are following up telephone calls from members of the public.

The fire in the concert hall was spotted in the early hours of Sunday by a security guard employed to oversee the structure following March's blaze.

Flames reached the roof of the concert hall, which dramatically slumped to one side in January in one of several major collapses suffered by the pier.

Although the damage was initially minor, strong winds ensured that flames reignited yesterday and they are now threatening to finish the ailing structure off.