Its flames and frames at the Cruicible

It was 999 at the 888.com World Championship today when play was suspended after a fire scare at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

The arena was evacuated at around 3.20pm with Mark Selby on a break of 26 in the second frame of his match against Mark Williams.

On the other table, Steve Davis had just reduced his deficit against defending champion Shaun Murphy to 8-3 when tournament director Mike Ganley entered the arena to suspend play.

The fire alarm had sounded three times within half an hour in the outer areas of the venue and on the final occasion it was decided to evacuate as the fire brigade arrived.

It is understood a small fire had ignited in a kitchen and after around 20 minutes the all-clear to re-enter the theatre was given, with play resuming after a delay of around 30 minutes.

As a result, it was decided to abandon the interval in the Davis-Murphy match and instead play the remaining five frames of the session without a break.