FIREFIGHTERS were called to a suspected arson at a Hampshire mental health unit last night.

The crews were called at around 11.30pm to the Melbury Lodge unit, off Queens Road, near the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

The fire was taking hold on a patient's bed on one of the wards on the first floor.

A doctor managed to extinguish the flames as they were taking hold on an elderly female patient's mattress.

She was taken to the nearby accident and emergency unit suffering with minor burns and smoke inhalation.

Patients at the unit were evacuated to a safe part of the unit whilst firefighters from Winchester and Eastleigh ventilated the building.

The aerial ladder was called up from Southampton in case the fire got into the roof.

Fire investigators were to probe the cause of the fire today.

Watch manager Chris Roper, of Winchester Fire Station, said: "Fortunately one of the doctors had got to the fire just as it was flaring up and he used a water extinguisher on it."