INVESTIGATORS are still trying to establish the cause of a fire that gutted a bakery.

Peter's Cathedral Bakers has closed its chain of 71 shops following the fire at its headquarters on the Dragonville Industrial Estate, Durham City, nearly two weeks ago.

The firm has pledged to reopen later in the month after it resumes production from a temporary base in a former food factory at Peterlee.

Durham Police and the county's fire brigade are investigating, but their efforts are being hampered by the scale of the destruction.

A Durham Police spokesman said: "It is likely to be a lengthy and complex investigation because of the scale of the blaze.

"We have to speak to a large number of staff to see if they can help us and we have a further site visit planned for later this week.

"We are keeping an open mind about the cause of the blaze and we cannot rule out arson. We and our colleagues in the fire brigade hope to establish a cause as soon as we can.''

The family firm has said the jobs of its 700 workers are safe.

Smoke from the fire, which was tackled by 12 crews, could be seen from 30 miles away.

The fire followed one in December that hit the sorting, despatch and storage areas at the Dragonville plant and led to shops closing for a couple of days due to lost production.