A fire on a train at a platform caused severe delays to services this morning.

The blaze on a train at platform three at Eastbourne Railway Station delayed services by up to an hour.

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service sent two fire engines to the scene at 5.03am.

A spokeswoman for the fire service said the roof of the train had caught fire. It was put out at 5.49am.

Electricity to that platform was currently switched off.

Power to platform one and two was restored and the 5.08am service to London Victoria departed at 6.34am. While the 5.43am service to Haywards Heath was delayed by 58 minutes.

Services into the station have also been delayed. The 5.37am from Bexhill arrived at 6.33am and the 05.44 from Brighton pulled into platform two at 6.38am.

A Southern spokesman said: "We can confirm that around 5am there was a fire in a section of one of the coaches of an empty train, which was not in service and parked in platform 3 at Eastbourne station.

"The track power supply was turned off while this was dealt with, leading to knock-on delays and cancellations to other Eastbourne services today, for which we apologise.

"The train will be moved to our depot for repair and to investigate the cause."

The cause of the incident was "accidental", the fire service said.