Police and firefighters at Perth’s B&M store where more than 50 fire service personnel battled an early morning blaze on Saturday. Police have confirmed they are now treating the outbreak as suspicious. Picture: Phil Hannah.

More than 50 firefighters help to put out early morning blaze at St Catherine’s Retail Park in city

Police have confirmed the fire at Perth’s B&M store is being treated as suspicious.

The outbreak was reported to the police at around 2.25 on Saturday morning. Inquiries are still continuing into the exact cause of the blaze.

Detective Inspector Jennifer Reid said: “Our inquiries into this incident are at an early stage and we are working closely with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to establish the full circumstances.

“I would urge anyone who has information to contact us and would like to thank the businesses at St Catherine’s for their support.”

In addition to the B&M store, the fire affected the neighbouring Pets at Home store and another vacant shop at the retail park.

A Pets at Home spokesperson confirmed most of its animals were moved elsewhere following the blaze.

They said: “We can confirm that due to a fire on the retail park and on the advice of the emergency services, we evacuated our Perth store.

“The pets were taken to other local stores for health checks and will remain there for now.

“Sadly, our fish remain in store and we will work closely with the emergency services to get to them as soon as possible.”

The spokesman added there were around 60 animals in the store in total. It remains closed in the aftermath of the blaze.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said “more than 50 firefighters” attended to tackle the blaze after being alerted at 2.13am on Saturday.

She added that there had been no reported injuries.

Early morning rail services were also affected, with ScotRail having to close the nearby railway line.

But the train company took to Twitter at around 8am to confirm that emergency services had permitted the line to be reopened.

A spokeswoman for B&M said they do not have any further updates regarding the weekend’s fire.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101 quoting incident 617 of August 24. Those wishing to remain anonymous can contact the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 1111.

The pets were taken to other local stores for health checks and will remain there for now

Picture: Phil Hannah Investigators at the site of the B&M store fire in Perth yesterday.