More than 300 guests had to be evacuated from their rooms at a seafront hotel after a drunken resident set off a fire alarm in the early hours.

Management at the Royal Albion Hotel in Old Steine, Brighton, where finishing touches to rebuilding work following the fire which ripped through the Grade II listed hotel two years ago are still being completed, took no chances.

Deputy general manager Nick Wright said: "We have had teething problems where the new alarm system has gone off by accident but we have to treat every alarm is if it is the real thing so we had no choice but to evacuate all the rooms."

Staff assembled guests in reception while the cause of the alarm was investigated by firefighters.

Mr Wright said no action was to be taken against the guest.