A TOWN centre was cordoned off and hundreds of shoppers evacuated after the second fire in two days yesterday.

Much of Darlington town centre was cordoned off and shoppers had to wait in the streets outside the Cornmill Centre after a fire broke out in the mall's loading bay at 2.25pm.

Two fire crews from Darlington were on the scene within minutes and the blaze - in a delivery dock at Priestgate - was out by 2.45pm.

It was the second emergency in Darlington town centre in two days, after shoppers spotted smoke rising from a manhole at High Row on Tuesday afternoon.

Darlington man Dave Bennett was shopping with his family in the Cornmill Centre yesterday afternoon when the fire alarm sounded.

"Shutters started coming down as soon as the fire alarm went off," he said. "Luckily we were close to the exit so we could get out. We could see the smoke pouring out of the loading bay and the fire engines pulled up straight away."

The mall was closed until just before 4pm while a full health and safety inspection was carried out.

Darlington Fire Service watch manager John Walkden said a pile of cardboard boxes in the service area had caught fire.

"We are not sure what caused it but we are looking through the CCTV footage," he said. "We would like to thank the staff at the Cornmill Centre for their assistance."

Police confirmed yesterday that Tuesday's fire at High Row started in a newly-installed water feature.

The £25,000 installation at the newly-paved Pedestrian Heart suffered a fire in its underground maintenance chamber. Shoppers saw smoke billowing from a manhole cover and phoned the fire brigade.

The water feature - designed to represent markets being washed down - was only switched on in June. It is part of Darlington's £8.5m pedestrianisation scheme.

A Darlington Borough Council spokeswoman said there was nothing to suggest the fire was linked with a similar incident six weeks ago when flames leapt from a metal post that was being installed outside the nearby Phones4U shop.

She said: "The fire started in a vent pipe where there had been a build-up of paper which may have occurred as a result of an act of vandalism. The police are investigating and cowling has been ordered to cover the vents.

"Temporary measures have been put in place to prevent paper getting into the vent pipe again."