INVESTIGATIONS were underway today after a derelict Colchester hospital went up in flames for the second time in six months.

Four fire crews attended the blaze at St Mary's Hospital and Balkerne Hill had to be shut for a time as the flames took hold at about 7.15pm on Friday.

The hospital has been unused for years and plans are underway to demolish it and build homes on the prime town centre site. Investigators are treating the fire as suspicious.

Earlier this year large tracts of the hospital buildings were destroyed by a blaze, believed to have been set accidentally by squatters.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.