A man and a woman were pulled unconscious from a smoke-logged flat in Bicester last night before being taken to hospital.

The fire started at the sheltered housing block in Old Place Yard at 9.45pm and a smoke alarm triggered a call to firefighters from Bicester and Kidlington who arrived in under nine minutes.

They forced their way into the property, which was heavily smoke-logged, and found a man and a woman in their late forties lying unconscious on the living room floor.

Incident commander Richard Bowley said: "The alarm system automatically alerted us to the fire.

"Firefighters found the two people lying unconscious and pulled them out — it was a close call.

"We put a call into the John Radcliffe Hospital this morning and staff told us they were OK.

"The fire is being investigated by fire investigation officers and Thames Valley Police, but there is no indication of suspicious circumstances at the moment."