Six fire engines and two specialist units were sent to the well-developed fire at a four-storey building on King Street around 9pm on Monday.

Structural engineers and a demolition contractor have been appointed by East Ayrshire Council and visited the site together with its Building Control team. The heavy lifting equipment has now arrived on site and work will start today to carry out limited demolition of those parts of the building shell which pose immediate danger.

Once this safety demolition is complete, a further assessment will be made to work out how much further demolition is needed.

Councillor Douglas Reid, leader of East Ayrshire Council, said: “News of the fire in King Street is devastating for all who live, work and shop in  Kilmarnock town centre. In recent months, we have been working closely with partners and investors to develop a new vision for the future of our town, and I’m deeply saddened by this latest turn of events. I attended this incident last night and saw first-hand the scale of the disaster unfolding. 

“At this moment in time, our teams are working under the direction of Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and early indications suggest that the damage is worse than we had first imagined.

“Our main concern is and always will be human safety, and in this regard our Building Standards officers have been able to get access to the site to inspect the affected building and it breaks my heart to say that regrettably parts of this listed building will need to be demolished as a matter of urgency to allow other recovery works to be progressed and further assessments continuing thereafter.”

Police say investigations into the cause of the fire, which caused an internal collapse, are ongoing.

The building, once home to a number of businesses, is expected to be demolished over fears of further collapse.

There have been no reports of any injuries.

A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “We were alerted at 8.58pm on Monday, July 14, to reports of a fire to the rear of a commercial building on King Street, Kilmarnock.

“At its height, operations control mobilised six appliances and specialist resources to the scene of a well-developed fire affecting a four-storey building, which partially collapsed.

“There are no reported casualties.

“Two appliances and specialist resources remain at the scene as they work to make the area safe.”