A 40-year-old man was taken to hospital after fire broke out in a Helensburgh town centre restaurant.

The man received burns to his face in the blaze at the Akash restaurant in Sinclair Street last Thursday afternoon.

Firefighters spent 17 hours at the scene after receiving an alert at 3.44pm.

Two crews from the local area were immediately sent to the site, where firefighters wearing protective breathing apparatus tackled the flames using a hose reel jet.

Engineers from gas distribution network company SGN were called to the scene at around 4pm to isolate the property's gas supply, though the connection was not switched off until around 6pm.

The blaze was extinguished by four firefighters, using two main jets, by 8.18pm, though the fire service remained at the scene to cut away internal and external parts of the building.

The fire, which is believed to have been accidental, is thought to have been the result of an electrical fault.

Erica Anderson, who was working at the Scandinavian Shop in Sinclair Street at the time of the fire, told The Advertiser: “A customer of ours asked if we were burning a candle, then I caught a waft of burning wood.

“I checked our shop first, then went outside and saw a huge cloud of smoke coming down the street. Then the street was cordoned off, and by that time we had no customers so I had to shut the shop.

“There was quite a lot of glass, wood and debris in the street but it had all been cleared away by the next morning.”

A spokesperson for Ladbrokes, which occupies the same building as the restaurant, said: “We were evacuated on Thursday and couldn't trade on Friday.

"We are open now as thankfully we escaped water damage to the fabric of the building due to the excellent work of the local fire service, who we want to thank, although we have still sustained smoke damage.

“We anticipate to be operating back to normal within a week or two.”

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and building control personnel conducted an inspection of the premises shortly after midnight and no further scenes of fire or "hot spots" were detected, although the fire service did not leave the scene until 9.15am on Friday.

Social media posts in the wake of the fire raised concerns that the CHORD project work in the centre of the town had made it harder for gas network engineers to isolate the supply, but a council spokesperson said there had been no changes to "access arrangements" as a result of the works.

Katie Lobban, spokesperson for gas distribution network company SGN, said: "We were called to reports of a fire in Sinclair Street, Helensburgh, on June 16 at around 4pm in our capacity as the National Gas Emergency Service for Scotland.

"Our engineers arrived quickly and began work to isolate the gas supply to the property for safety reasons. This involved excavating outside the property to cut off the gas supply. The supply was isolated at approximately 6pm.

"Safety checks were carried out and our engineers left the site."

When asked about excavation work to access the gas supply during the incident, Ms Lobban added: "In the event of a fire we work under the instruction of the Fire and Rescue Service. We were required to excavate outside to isolate the gas supply as we were unable to access the property."