A plume of thick black smoke could be seen billowing from one of the towers at the Scroby Sands wind farm on Tuesday morning off the coast of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.

The alarm was raised around 10.50am and all staff at the North Sea site were accounted for after an evacuation, the coastguard said in a statement.

RWE, the operator of the wind farm which is 1.5 miles off the coast, said the workers were safe and there were no injuries.

The German company stated it was the turbine nacelle - the enclosure at the top of the tower which houses the generating components - that had been alight following an incident.

A spokesperson for the operator said the blaze had "extinguished itself" after a short time, admitting it was "incredibly rare" for a turbine to catch fire.

RWE advised people to "keep away" from the area as the cause of the blaze was assessed.

It added: "Emergency services were contacted immediately and the coastguard made aware.

"They are monitoring the area and advising on a potential 500-metre restriction zone being enforced around the affected turbine."

Click to subscribe to ClimateCast with Tom Heap wherever you get your podcasts

No coastguard search and rescue units were sent to the incident.

Read more:
Britons paying hundreds of millions to turn off wind turbines
How a Bristol wind turbine is tackling poverty and climate change
Why some wind farms are being paid to stop producing energy

RWE said the 30 turbines at Scroby Sands have an installed capacity of 60 megawatts and can power over 48,000 households.