Two people have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out at BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in Cumbria, police said.
Cumbria constabulary said the fire at the nuclear submarine shipyard broke out at about 12.45am and was ongoing.
Police said there was “no nuclear risk”, but two people were taken to hospital for suspected smoke inhalation.
A statement said: “At this time there are no other casualties and everyone else have been evacuated from the Devonshire Dock Hall and are accounted for.”
Images posted on social media overnight showed flames shooting out from the Devonshire Dock Hall building, with alarms blaring in the background.
Police advised people living nearby to “remain indoors while emergency services respond to the incident and keep doors and windows closed”.
The facility is home to Britain’s Astute-class submarines and Dreadnought programme. The site is also where BAE is building the Dreadnought-class submarines that will take over the Trident nuclear deterrent.
A woman who lives beside the shipyard said she saw thick black smoke billowing from the building. Donna Butler, 36, said: “My son came and got me and said that the BAE alarms were going off, so we went.
“When I opened the front door, we just saw a lot of black smoke. It was a lot of black smoke, like really thick black smoke, and it was very loud.”
She said a few police cars and emergency service vehicles were at the shipyard and police were asking people to stay in their homes.
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Shares in BAE Systems fell 1.25% in early trading on Wednesday after news of the fire, making it one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip companies.
BAE Systems has been contacted for comment.