Shoppers looked on as three crews of firefighters pumped water to the top of the Highcross shopping centre yesterday as part of a training exercise in tackling high rise blazes.

Crews from the city's eastern, southern and western stations used pipes running up the side of the shopping centre to pump water from the ground up to the John Lewis car park.

Firefighters then ran up the stairs to the roof car park, where they connected their hoses and carried out drill exercises.

A spokeswoman for Highcross said: "These exercises will allow the fire service to test new procedures for tackling incidents at high rise buildings, as well as carry out real-life simulations."

Similar drills will be carried out at the shopping centre on Friday and Monday.