MORE than 180 people were evacuated from a factory when a fire sparked a safety alert.

Firefighters were called to the Print Pack Europe Ltd factory in Bridge Hall Lane, Bury, at around 1pm on Friday.

A small fire started on one of the printing machines when a spark ignited vapours from the alcohol based ink.

But the fire was instantly put out when the machine's safety system kicked in and drowned the blaze in carbon dioxide gas.