Firefighters called to tackle a bedroom blaze at a house in Headington, Oxford, discovered a battery in a fitted smoke detector had been removed.

Two crews from Slade Park and Rewley Road attended the fire at the house in Bateman Road early on Sunday. It had been caused by an oil-filled radiator in the first-floor bedroom. Only minor damage was caused.

Station officer Doug Minter said: "If the fire had occurred during the night it would have gone undetected, since the smoke detector covering the first floor had had its battery removed and could therefore have been life-threatening."

**Flames swept through the New Look clothes shop in Witney's Woolgate Centre on Saturday night. The ground floor of the two-storey shop was badly damaged. No-one was injured.