A tower block of luxury apartments was evacuated in Canary Wharf when a night-time blaze broke out.

Smoke filled the stairwell of the 42-strorey Pan Peninsula building off West Ferry Road, near South Quay, at 2.30am yesterday.

The blaze broke out in an apartment on the third floor, but the smoke got into the air vents, affecting most of the building.

“Another few minutes and it could have turned into a serious incident,” a senior fire officer said. “But we managed to stop it spreading.

“The smoke got into the air vents and reached as high as the 37th floor. Many of the people on the upper floors were worried and made their way down to the entrance lobby for safety.”

Emergency crews arrived from Millwall, Poplar, Shadwell and Whitechapel fire-stations.

The blaze was confined to the three-room apartment on the third-floor which was badly damaged by smoke, but there was no structural damage. No-one was injured.

It was the fourth blaze at the tower block in nine months.