A huge blaze has destroyed part of the Littlewoods Pools building, one of Liverpool's most famous landmarks.

The roof and upper floor of one wing of the "iconic" structure were feared to have been lost after the fire took hold shortly before 20:00 BST on Sunday.

Merseyside Fire Service said there had been no injuries and there were no concerns over the building's integrity.

Crews are still tackling the blaze at the art deco structure on Edge Lane which has been empty since 2003.

Just over 12 weeks ago plans were announced for a major new complex at the five-storey site, including film and TV studios - although the part of the building earmarked for the studios was unaffected by the fire.

The deal, signed with developer Capital & Centric, intends to create a £50m northern base for Twickenham Studios, with the creation of hundreds of jobs.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said crews had created high-level openings in wooden panelling to access the fire on the upper floors and are also fighting the fire internally from a protected area.

It said an audit of the area is taking place to allow vehicle access for local businesses.

Merseyside Police have re-opened the Liverpool bound carriageway of Edge Lane.

Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson tweeted: "Absolutely heartbreaking news that the iconic Littlewoods Building is ablaze, looks pretty bad at this stage, let's hope and pray it's salvageable."

Adam Higgins, co-founder of developers Capital & Centric, said the blaze had started in the roof of the west wing, which is known for its distinctive clock tower.

"So far all the walls remain intact and obviously they are the bits that are really iconic to people from the city," he added.

"The building's hugely important to us and to everyone in Liverpool. We announced some big plans about three months ago which would bring in Twickenham film studios to the city and to this building in particular.

"I'm very hopeful that we still will be able to do that because the walls still seem to be intact and, providing we can keep them up, we can still very much continue with our plans.

"Twickenham are going into the east wing, the building next door, and other companies will be moving into the west wing which has been on fire."

Mr Higgins said investigators had been unable to enter the building due to the collapse and the cause of the blaze was unknown.

The fire service said it was called at 19:52 BST and was on the scene within four minutes, but firefighters were confronted with a "significant" blaze across an area measuring 200m by 100m.

It was brought under control by 01:30 as crews managed to prevent the spread of the fire beyond the one wing.

The building was part of Sir John Moores' Littlewoods empire, which included the weekly football pools coupons played by millions, as well as the high street stores around the country.

A number of redevelopment plans had been discussed for the site in recent years but had fallen through.