A 31-YEAR-OLD man died after fire swept through his flat above a Twickenham restaurant in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Fireman pulled Geoffrey Hall from his flat above the newly opened Arlecchino restaurant, York Street, at 4.49am.

Mr Hall was not breathing and firemen and paramedics tried to resuscitate him at the scene and in the ambulance, but Mr Hall was confirmed dead shortly after arriving at West Middlesex Hospital.

This week a post mortem revealed that he had died from burns and the inhalation of smoke from the fire. An inquest will be held in three months time.

Firemen were called to the blazing two bedroomed flat after a member of the public saw smoke coming from the windows.

One man had already managed to escape the flames by the time the fire brigade arrived. He was not injured but was in a state of shock.

A fire brigade spokesman said: "Smoke was seen coming from the flat's windows.

"There were two males in their 30s in the flat, one had escaped the fire before the fire brigade had arrived and was very shocked.

"The second man, aged 31, was rescued from the flat by firemen using breathing apparatus.

"It was a two bedroom flat and the fire was confined to a bed sitting room. The fire was under control by 5.37pm. The Twickenham fire brigade were fighting a fire on the Chertsey Road at the time so it was Kingston fire brigade who attended the scene first within four to five minutes.

"Smoke alarms were not found to be installed in the flats. The cause of the fire is still under investigation."

Police are not treating the fire as suspicious but the cause is still under investigation.

The manager of Arlecchino, the Italian restaurant directly under the flat said that the restaurant was unaffected and is open for business as usual.