Veteran British actor David Suchet has voiced his sorrow after a fire broke out at a landmark London building which doubled as the home of his Tv detective character Hercule Poirot.

The actor, who has spent the past 25 years playing the Belgian sleuth in British Tv adaptations of Agatha Christie's books, was distraught when he heard the apartment block in London's Smithfield district was devastated by fire on Saturday (20Jul13).

In a post on Twitter.com, he writes "I am so sorry!! I do hope no-one was hurt."

The building has doubled as Poirot's London home throughout Suchet's tenure as the famous detective. No one was injured in the blaze, but many of the apartments were badly damaged.