Two units of New Ross Fire Service attended the scene of a small fire at Tesco in New Ross last week

THE TESCO store in New Ross had to be evacuated for a period of time last week after a small fire broke out in the premises.

The incident occurred shortly after 10 a.m. on Thursday morning and at first shoppers in the supermarket thought it was a drill.

“I wasn’t sure at first,” said one woman who spoke to the Echo.

“I was in doing my shopping and then the alarm went and I just thought it was a fire drill but then they announced that the building was to be evacuated so we knew something was up then,” she added.

Another woman described seeing “flames falling from the ceiling”.

“It seemed as if part of the ceiling or something inside the ceiling was on fire,” she said.

“It was like something melting and falling down,” she added.

Two units of New Ross Fire Service attended the scene and the fire was quickly brought under control.

It’s believed an electrical fault may have caused the incident, however, only minor damage was caused the store re-opened for businesses within a relatively short period of time.