Fire wrecks store ransacked by gang of thieves days ago

The fire broke out at Sandy's convenience store in Granton Mains Avenue, just after 4am.

A woman who works in the shop and lives nearby spotted the flames and called the emergency services.

Fire chiefs said the blaze had started in the shop's roof space but they had "yet to ascertain the cause".

They said it was too early to say whether the fire had been started deliberately, but the roof was "a strange place for a fire to start".

On Sunday night, the shop was raided by a gang of bungling thieves who set off the burglar alarm before leaving a trail of coins for police to follow as they made their getaway.

Two female employees were left terrified when a group of up to six men forced their way in to the store as they locked up for the night.

The thieves ransacked the store in the hunt for cash while demanding the employees open its safe in one of the back rooms. But one of the men panicked and grabbed the handle of the safe, setting off the alarm.

The men fled the premises with a four-figure sum of money, but a trail of coins was dropped from a bag of change they had stolen, leading to West Pilton Green.

As fire crews carried out investigations into today's fire, the shop, which is opposite Telford College, was cordoned off with police tape.

Fire service group manager David Farries said firefighters had a difficult job extinguishing the blaze as they had to pull back the roof tiles first.

He said: "The fire centred in the roof area, so we are investigating the potential cause at the moment. It is not entirely apparent how the fire started. There is a lot of damage to the roof itself and a lot of the roof has fallen into the inside of the shop. The police have some ongoing investigations for this building. Our fire investigation team are working on it to ascertain the cause."

Meanwhile, fire crews were called to a suspected chip pan fire in Dumbryden Gardens, Wester Hailes, at just after 2am today.

They rescued a man who was sitting on the window ledge of a first floor flat. He was taken to the ERI suffering from smoke inhalation.