Santander bank, which is situated on the edge of Highfield Campus on Burgess Road mysteriously caught fire last night.
The bank, which is situated alongside other student-aimed businesses like Barclays, Costa and Pret, has now been confirmed as being on fire.
The facilities are part of the University-owned Gower Building, which also houses a number of students in the flats above.
Emergency services are said to have been called at 2:30am, with fire crews from St Mary’s, Redbridge and Eastleigh all battling the blaze until just after 4am.
It has now been confirmed that the blaze started at one of the Santander cash machines before spreading to the bank itself.
A University of Southampton spokesperson told Wessex Scene:
The police are investigating a fire at a bank branch in one of our buildings.
All affected students evacuated the building safely and returned to their accommodation once Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed it was safe to do so.
We are assisting the police with their investigation and are grateful to the emergency services for dealing with the incident so quickly.
Indeed, affected students have been quick to praise the swift response of the University security team, with one saying:
All the Gower residents were taken over to a lecture theatre in B32.
Legit kudos to the security team for managing this one. They let a couple of us living in the flats above to go get emergency meds and my wheelchair.
We had both security and student life there, who were wonderful as always.
Luckily, nobody is reported to have sustained any injuries.
The cause of the fire is being treated as suspicious, with investigations ongoing.
