Two boys have been arrested on suspicion of arson after a major fire left a listed building in Nottingham city centre at risk of internal collapse.

At its height, 12 fire crews and about 60 firefighters were tackling the blaze at the Grade II listed Escobar building in Market Street shortly before 23:00 BST on Monday. No-one was seriously injured, police said.

Closures were put in place in Upper Parliament Street, Goldsmith Street, Market Street and the surrounding area, with a joint police and fire investigation under way.

Police said the boys – 12 and 14 – remained in custody.

The investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing, officers said.

People have been advised to avoid the area, with tram and bus services being affected by the emergency response.

Nottingham Express Transit, which operates the tram network, also said it had turned off the overhead power lines in the area due to the fire.

Richard Booth, station manager for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, told the BBC the building, which comprises several businesses and residential flats, was “not safe to go into”.

“It’s not in danger of collapsing externally, but internally there is no roof,” he said.

“A lot of the roof trusses are quite highly fire-damaged so there’s potential for internal collapse within that building above Escobar.”

Speaking from the scene on Tuesday morning, incident commander Richard Leighton told the BBC about a dozen residents had been affected along with four businesses.

“We need to make sure the building is safe for them to return,” he said, adding people living there were likely to be face disruption for the rest of the day.

The emergency response was scaled down on Tuesday morning, with about four fire engines at the scene and two police vehicles.

Firefighters used the aerial ladder platform to take a closer look at the building and check for hotspots.

The Escobar building was badly damaged, with debris scattered across Market Street.

The building next to it, with a dental practice in its ground floor, had its windows open.

Ian Wikberg and India Morrell found themselves caught up in the chaos after leaving a concert at Rock City on Monday.

“We came out at about 22:30, when the doors closed, and we walked down the road and it was all quite active with fire, ambulance and police, and building was well alight,” Wikberg said.

The 43-year-old said there were “pockets of people” standing around in slippers and dressing gowns after being evacuated from the building.

“[There was] a lot of people, a lot of cordons, all the roads blocked, the air was full of smoke and red,” he said.

Morrell added: “It was scary really – I’ve never seen anything like it before.

“The first thing you think is you hope everyone’s out and you hope everyone’s OK.”

When the pair first saw the fire, the flames were “probably five metres above the building”.

“You could see the redness and there was smoke everywhere,” Morrell said.

Restaurant owner Erlint Tsalai said he was awaiting an update from police after his business, The Souvlaki, was cordoned off.

He said he was alerted to the fire, two doors from his property, by his landlord.

“When I looked at the news, I saw the pictures and everything. I was really worried and I came here as soon as possible,” he added.

“I hope everything is fine for anyone who was here last night.”

The front door of Tsalai’s restaurant had to be smashed so firefighters could check the building and ensure nobody was inside.

He added he was worried about the cost of losing a day’s business and of replacing the door.

Chris Pearson, city commander for Nottinghamshire Police, said the arrests were made “very quickly” after officers were called to the scene.

He has urged anyone with information or footage of the blaze to get in touch or contact Crimestoppers.

Additional reporting by Asha Patel

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