Eighteen workers escaped a burning building unhurt after a blaze broke out at their New Malden engineering works.

Smoke billowed as flames lapped through Paramount Precision Engineering in Wellington Crescent, near Kingston Road, at about 1.48pm today.

The workers walked to safety before fire crews from New Malden, Kingston, Richmond and Sutton arrived at the industrial unit and brought the fire quickly under control by 3.13pm.

Mark Legg, 49, who has been working there for 23 years, described it as a dust fire.

He said: “It went up really, really quickly within three minutes. First of all it started billowing smoke and then there were flames.

“We don’t know if we will be back to work this week. It’s all got to be assessed. It happened so quickly to be honest, but everyone was calm and collected.”

The one-storey building suffered a hole in its roof and broken windows, and the fire service said around half of the ground floor of the unit was damaged by fire.

Watch Manager Paul Fitzgerald from Kingston said: “There was minimal damage to the premises. Crews remained on site to assist the company and the workers.”

Most people have now left the scene.

The cause of the blaze is being investigated.