EVERY guest at the fire-ravaged Moat House Hotel was quizzed by detectives yesterday.

More than 120 people fled the hotel just after 12.30am yesterday after smoke billowed through parts of the building and a section of corridor went up in flames.

Tragically an elderly married couple from Blackpool died after they were found with serious injuries in the blazing passageway.

Dozens of guests who were evacuated from the Higher Bridge Street hotel took shelter in the New Pack Horse Hotel off Bradshawgate for the rest of the night.

And yesterday all of those guests and hotel staff were quizzed by police officers about the blaze.

Det Chief Insp Paul Buchanan said: "We have been checking with all those guests evacuated to ensure they have been accounted for.

"They have also been asked if they had seen anything which could have helped the investigation into the incident. We have spent the day talking to guests and that should now be completed."

The hotel guests were spoken to by detectives after they returned to the hotel to collect the belongings which they had had to leave in their rooms as the blaze took hold.

Police chiefs have refused to be drawn on claims that the hotel had been the target of a mystery caller who had phoned staff with threats.

Yesterday an official spokesman for the hotel insisted he had not been made aware of any hoax calls, which would have been notified to the police as a matter of procedure.

A Home Office pathologist conducted post mortem examinations on the elderly couple yesterday afternoon. Their identities have still not been released but they are understood to hail from the Lancashire seaside resort.

Two other casualties who were taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation were later released following treatment.