A FIRE ripped through the kitchen of a Chinese takeaway while it was open for business.

The blaze broke out in a mini-fryer at the premises in Leigh Road, Leigh, and spread to an extraction unit and to the ducting.

There were no customers in at the time and the owners fled the premises.

Ten firefighters from Atherton and Leigh tackled the blaze and were on the scene for an hour-and-a-half.

Watch manager Lewis Cross said: “We managed to tackle the fire within 30 minutes but were on the scene as we had to remove part of the ceiling.

“Two parts of the kitchen were badly damaged in the blaze and the takeaway will be shut for a while.”

A faulty thermostat is thought to have led to the fire which broke out at 10.45pm on Sunday.