EARLY evening diners had to abandon their food after an oven caught light in a Marlow restaurant last night.

Around ten customers at Francesco's in Spittal Street were evacuated from their tables after the fire broke out in a pizza oven.

Fire crews from Marlow and High Wycombe were called to the scene at 6.30pm after the chef spotted the flames.

Staff threw a bucket of water over the fire, which helped to subdue it before the crews arrived.

Firefighters had to rip all the other appliances out of the kitchen before they could get to the smoking oven.

They then dragged it outside to the back of the restaurant to extinguish the flames.

Phil Sears, crew manager at High Wycombe fire station, said the kitchen was left undamanged because the fire was contained in the oven.

He added: "The oven itself was under an extractor hood. All the smoke from the fire itself was quite happily taken away by the extraction vent."

Firefighters from Stokenchurch were also kept busy last night after a fire broke out in a chimney at The Frog pub in Skirmett, at around 7.30pm.