London Bridge closes after fire breaks out at nearby 12-storey building

Four fire crews were sent to tackle the blaze in the capital

Fire fighters at the scene of a blaze near London Bridge (Twitter/@caztellations)

London Bridge was closed off this evening, after a fire broke out at a nearby 12-storey building.

The fire reportedly started at 33 King William Street, a block in the capital which is under demolition.

Four fire crews were sent to the building just after 6pm, where around 10 per cent of the scaffolding on the 10th floor of the building was alight, London Fire Brigade said in a statement.

Footage from the scene shared on social media shows firefighters tackling the blaze, as flaming debris falls from behind the scaffolding.

In the midst of the capital's evening rush hour, London Bridge was closed to traffic and pedestrians and buses were diverted.

Twitter user @Caztellations, who was making her way to work in the area at the time, tweeted that pedestrians could only walk on one side of the bridge.

At around 7:30pm, London Fire Brigade tweeted that southbound traffic across the bridge had re-opened.

An hour later, the force posted on the social media website that the fire was “under control” but crews remained on the scene.

The rescue service also tweeted to clarify that London Bridge itself was not on fire, but rather scaffolding on a building nearby.