Around 110 patients from five floors of the Can Ruti Hospital in Badalona had to be evacauted at lunchtime today as a result of the thick smoke originating from a small fire in the hospital basement warehouse that, it is believed, may have been started by a discarded cigarette end.

It took only around 40 minutes for fire-fighters to extinguish the blaze, which did not require the evacuation of the intensive care department.

Nobody was injured and the patients are being taken care of in a temporary field hospital set up outside while essential services such as electricity, gas and telephone lines are reconnected.