DOZENS of firefighters worked through the night to battle a fire in the roof of a thatched property.

Around five emergency calls were received at around 8.50pm on Saturday, March 25, to the house in Worcester Road, Egdon.

Crews from 11 fire stations across Herefordshire and Worcestershire attended the scene in rotation, finally issuing the 'stop' message - indicating no further assistance was needed - shortly before 8am.

On arrival, crews had to cut through a thick layer of thatching and wire mesh to get to the fire, which started in the roof.

The blaze severely damaged around half of the roof, despite officers doing all they could to salvage as much as possible.

It is not known if the occupants were in the building at the time of the fire.

Firefighters from Worcester, Droitwich, Redditch, Pershore, Upton, Malvern, Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Leominster, Evesham and Kidderminster were called to the incident in rotation throughout the night.