A man has died in a house blaze in a Highland village.
Firefighters discovered his body after being called to the property in the ski resort of Aviemore.
Residents in the town’s Strathspey Avenue said they saw smoke coming from the house before the alarm was raised.
The victim of the blaze was named locally yesterday as 38-year-old Colin Glen.
Fire crews from Aviemore, Grantown and Kingussie used breathing apparatus as they battled the flames, and found the man’s body inside.
A house next door was evacuated as a precaution.
A neighbour said his own smoke alarm had gone off at around 6am, but after checking his property he thought it was a false alarm.
He said: “I could faintly smell smoke but I thought nothing of it. I thought it might just have been our fire ticking over.
“It wasn’t until later that my neighbour on the other side came running over and banged on the door to say we had to get out, because there was smoke coming from the house next door.
“It did look bad. When the fire brigade came the house was so full of smoke I had to give them directions to where the rooms are because they couldn’t really see through it.”
A cordon was set up around the house as police and fire investigators began an investigation into the cause of the blaze.
A spokesman for the fire and rescue service said: “Firefighters in breathing apparatus used one hose reel jet and one main jet to extinguish the fire.
“Sadly, during a search of the property, firefighters discovered one male fatality inside.
Neighbours said that Mr Glen was not well known by residents in the quiet cul-de-sac.
One added: “He kept himself to himself round here mostly.”
Mr Glen appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court last week and admitted assaulting his partner Marion Sangster at her Aviemore home just before Christmas.
He was given bail on the condition that he did not contact Ms Sangster or consume alcohol, and was due to return to court for sentence later this month.
He was also convicted of stealing alcohol from two supermarkets at Inverness Sheriff Court in 2011.
The Aviemore incident was the third fatal house fire in the north this week.
Investigations are continuing into the death of Lady Jean Gilmour, 93, in a major blaze at her Invernauld House home near Rosehall in Sutherland on Saturday night.
And a woman, named locally as Cathy Henderson, died in a fire at her home at Lhanbryde in Moray on Tuesday.