A woman has been taken to hospital after a fire broke out in a block of flats in Southampton.

Residents of Polymond House, on Castle Way, heard their fire alarms sound at around lunchtime on Monday.

A fire had broken out on a second-floor flat, causing the building to be evacuated by fire crews who were at the scene shortly after residents reported smelling smoke from within the block.

Police and ambulance crews were also at the scene to help with the evacuation of the building.

Simon Rolfe, a resident of the building for four years, said: "It appears there was a fire on the second floor of the building.

“The fire alarms are quite sensitive. They have gone off before when a resident has burnt their toast.

"A neighbour came to my door and said that a flat on the second floor was on fire. There are ambulances here, so I hope whoever was inside is okay."

The front door of the flat, where neighbours reported to have seen the smoke coming from, appears to have been broken in by emergency services.

READ MORE: Southampton flat fire sees woman rescued by firefighters

A spokesperson for Hampshire Fire and Rescue said: "A woman was rescued from a Southampton flat following a small fire on Castle Way.

"Crews from St Mary’s, Redbridge, Totton, Eastleigh, Fareham, Winchester and Cosham were on the scene after smoke was reported in the block at around half one this afternoon.

"Firefighters provided medical care before passing the casualty into the hands of Scas paramedics.

"Wearing breathing apparatus firefighters were able to stop the fire with hose reel jets before using ventilation fans to clear the smoke.

"HIWFRS left the scene and returned to station following the stop message at 2.27pm."

The fire service confirmed that the woman was taken to hospital.

Neighbour Santhosh Ravisekar said: "First of all we thought it might be another fire drill.

"My family and a group of other residents made sure we knocked all the doors so that people were aware there was a fire."

"We knew the fire department was on their way, so everybody went to the car park to get to safety."

There was no answer from the flat where the smoke was coming from, he said.