Scenery catches fire during Christmas circus show

A circus said it had completed a "thorough investigation" after a small fire broke out on stage at the end of a show.

Great Yarmouth Hippodrome said a pyrotechnic ignited scenery at the conclusion of its Christmas Spectacular on Saturday night.

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service attended the building, on St George's Road, at 20:35 GMT but said the fire was extinguished before crews arrived. No injuries were reported.

In a post on Facebook, the venue thanked audience members "who remained extremely calm" and said its scheduled shows would continue as planned.

"We have completed a thorough investigation and have taken extra steps to make sure this cannot happen again," it said.

An audience member, who did not wish to be named, said: "The fire had spread to two further spots before it was extinguished and it was becoming smoky.

"It was quite alarming. The staff did a fantastic job to manage to stop it from spreading."

Ringmaster Jack Jay said: "We were extremely pleased with how our excellent staff and amazing audiences reacted to the situation.

"It happened in the final moments of the show, so everybody was able to enjoy the entire performance and were able to leave as usual.

"Despite it being only a minor incident, we must give a big thank you to our amazing local fire service, who were swiftly on site to check everything was OK."

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