THE BBC halted its live radio broadcasts this morning after a fire alarm forced the studios to be evacuated.

       Staff were hurried out of London's New Broadcasting House during Radio 4's Today programme at about 7.30am.

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       BBC radio went off-air this morning after staff were evacuated following a fire alarm Credit: PA

       Listeners could hear an alarm repeating the message: "Please leave the building immediately by the nearest exit."

       Presenter Nick Robinson said "you may be able to hear we have a little alarm going on here" as it sounded in the background.

       He and co-host Martha Kearney attempted to continue the show, but Kearney soon declared: "It's going to be quite hard to carry on with this kind of alarm going on."

       While the station was off air, a pre-recorded message apologised for the "disruption".

       An announcer said: "This is BBC Radio 4. I'm afraid we're having some problems which are preventing us from continuing with our scheduled programme as smoothly as we wish.

       "Many apologies for the disruption, but rest assured we are doing our best to restore normal service as soon as possible."

       A documentary about the history of the T-shirt filled the gap before the presenters returned to their mics.

       Workers were eventually allowed back into the building around 10 minutes later and the programme resumed after less than half an hour just before 8am.

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       Robinson tweeted a photo of himself and Kearney outside the studio once the drama was over.

       The caption read: "Emergency over. If there was one … we’re now back in the studio."

       It is not clear what caused the alarm to sound, but Robinson said once back inside: "As far as we can tell there wasn't actually an emergency.

       "We were outside in the cold for a little while but we are relieved to be back on the Today programme."

       Broadcasting continued with Thought For The Day - a segment involving "reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news".

       A BBC Radio 4 spokesperson said: "Nick explained to listeners that an alarm meant the Today team had to leave the studio disrupting the programme for a short while but it returned to normal as soon as possible."

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