BOSSES at one of Blackburn's flagship department stores were today counting the cost of a flood which closed parts of two floors, just weeks after a £400,000 refit was completed.

Staff at Marks & Spencer in King William Street, Blackburn, had to shut off large areas of the store after a dishwasher in the cafe broke down, spewing water across the first floor yesterday morning.

Water also leaked through to the ground floor, damaging ceiling tiles and carpet while staff dashed to move stock from the womenswear department.

The first floor Cafe Revive opened at the start of October after a £400,000 revamp of the store

The King William Street entrance was reduced from three doors to one, while shoppers could only enter the menswear and other first floor departments via the store's only lift after the flood affected the escalator and staircase. The foodhall carried on trading as usual. Workmen were called yesterday lunchtime to start clearing up, ripping up carpet from the ground floor and working in the cafe.

No cost has yet been put on the damage and it has yet to be established how much of the recent refurbishment will have to be carried out again.

A company spokesman said: "The store has suffered some flood damage due to a faulty pump on a dishwasher.

"Areas of the menswear and womenswear departments have been affected by the water and Caf Revive was closed yesterday while work took place to clean up.

"Both sales floors should be trading today, but access to the second floor is via the lift as the escalators have remained closed.

"We are working hard to minimise disruption to customers and we expect the whole store to be trading as normal by the end of today."

The new cafe was the centrepiece of the refurbishment, following in the footsteps of stores in Burnley, Bolton and Preston.

Marks & Spencer has had a presence in Blackburn since 1884 and last year gave the town's Sunday trading a major boost by agreeing to open seven days a week.