SHOPPERS were evacuated from North-East shopping centre this afternoon (Friday, Nov 2) when an electrical fault set the fire alarm off.

Firefighters were called to the Cornmill Centre, in Darlington, at 2pm.

Susan Young, Cornmill’s centre manager said: “The centre was evacuated for half an hour due to a minor electrical fault in one of the lift pump rooms.

“The presence of a small amount of smoke meant that the fire brigade were called to bring the incident under control and customers were evacuated quickly and safely from the building.

“The safety of our customers is always paramount and we will always err on the side of caution.

“Our lift engineers were in attendance shortly afterwards to rectify the fault and the centre has now re-opened and is fully operational.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers during the brief closure.”