AN ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNER has been killed, and another seriously injured, after an overnight fire at a camp site south of Edinburgh.

Fire services were called to the campsite in Midlothian just before 3:30am, but were forced to abandon their fire engines and proceed on foot when they reached the wooded area where the fire had broken out.

They discovered the body of a man, believed to be in his 20s, and found another woman seriously injured; she has been transferred to a hospital in Livingston about 20 miles away.

Police said a joint inquiry, being carried out with the fire service, is underway to establish the cause of the fire.

The Bilston Glen area, where the fire occurred, has been occupied since 2002 by groups of environmental campaigners hoping to block construction of a bypass in the area, which was announced in 2000.

The group has built three houses and STV reports that the activists describe themselves as a “non-hierarchical autonomous group”.

The camp has yet to offer any comment.