A fire has broken out in the engine room of a Calais-bound ferry carrying 337 passengers.

The Pride of Canterbury vessel left Dover in Kent early this morning and was arriving in northern France when the blaze erupted at around 8am Irish time.

Footage of the ferry shows large plumes of grey and black smoke billowing up into the sky from the engine room.

A man filming the blaze can be seen moving up stairs to the deck where he films a large cloud of smoke and is heard saying, "I think the boat's on fire."

Seconds later, to the sound of a loud fire alarm, he tells a passenger who has come up to find out what is happening that "the captain's just said the starboard engines weren't working properly."

A P&O spokeswoman said, "the fire was extinguished straight away by the sprinkler system. There were no injuries, either among the crew or passengers. The passengers disembarked as normal."

The company has announced on Twitter that a number of trips between Calais and Dover have been cancelled today "due to a technical problem with one of our vessels".

You can see a video of the incident below: