A house fire on a steep Christchurch hill has forced the evacuation of homes below it.
The Fire Service was called to the Richmond Hill Road home just after 6am.
A spokesman, Andrew Norris, said when crews arrived the house was engulfed in flames.
He said a geotechnical expert brought in to assess its stability found it to be unstable so two homes below it were evacuated for a few days.
Two crews are still working on putting the fire out.
