FIREFIGHTERS tackled a blaze for several hours within the building of a former pub in a North Lanarkshire village.

The blaze started at the vacant building in Glenboig's Main Street at around 8pm last night.

The property has three residential homes above it and once housed the Garnqueen pub and the Village Inn which is also know locally as the Wee Shop. 

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service say a six-strong team of firefighters dressed in breathing apparatus entered the premises and knocked down the flames using powerful hose reel jets.

Firefighters thereafter aggressively cut away parts of the internal structure of the building to prevent the fire spreading further.

At the height of the incident, crews from Coatbridge, Cumbernauld and Stepps were in attendance as well as an aerial platform from Clydesmill.

The fire was put out just before 1am on Thursday, May 26.

The building was passed to utility firm Scottish Power who had earlier been called to isolate power supplies.

A joint investigation between SFRS and Police Scotland is currently underway to establish the cause.

Police Scotland confirmed that they were of the incident. 

A Police Scotland spokeswoman added: "Enquiries are ongoing."