Fire-fighters initially struggled to deal with a serious blaze in the warehouse of a Carrefour hypermarket in Santander's El Alisal district that was reported shortly after 11pm last night.

Around a dozen fire appliances were deployed to deal with the blaze and to prevent it from spreading to the adjacent commercial centre.

Car tyres and mainly seasonal stock such as sun shades, gardening supplies, hammocks and sun loungers were affected.

Given that the shopping centre is on the outskirts of the city away from populated areas, there was little threat to the public and traffic disruption was minimal.

One fireman injured his knee as he was fighting the blaze and was taken to a nearby health centre by ambulance.

The store, which opened in 2004, has a total surface area of 27,000m2, including warehouses and a vast 1,000-vehicle customer car-park.