Two men have been rescued from the upper floor of a restaurant in Cambridge after a pair of punt workers noticed the flames and used their poles to break through the windows.

Lawrence Austin, who owns Granta Punting, and Marco Meile were working in their punts when they noticed smoke emanating from the chimney of the building. They were joined in their rescue attempt by a group of passers-by playing Pokémon Go, who banged on downstairs windows in order to warn those inside the building of the fire.

The building affected was India House, an Indian restaurant near Darwin College on Newnham Road. Fittingly, the restaurant offers its customers the option of eating their meal in a punt on the adjacent Mill Pond.

Speaking of  the incident, which broke out a little after 4pm on Sunday 14th August, Austen said: “My first concern was that there are people in there”. Upon noticing the fire, he “went to get a punt pole and smashed the top windows in with it, trying to get their attention.”

He added: “When we woke the occupants they actually ran through the flames in their bare feet. It was like a movie.”

Meanwhile, the rescuers called the fire brigade, which mustered crews from Cambridge, Linton, Huntingdon, and Papworth to fight the blaze. They used hose reels and an aerial ladder to extinguish the flames, which were confined to the roof. The crews left the scene at 8.10pm.

Meile praised the fire service, saying, “The fire brigade came really fast here. They were really great.”

Neither of the occupants was injured by the fire. Cambridge Fire and Rescue Services has confirmed that its cause was accidental. “It’s something you don’t expect on a Sunday afternoon in Cambridge,” said Austen.