Fire breaks out at shopping mall in Ganguly Bagan

Kolkata: A fire broke out at a shopping mall at Ganguly Bagan area in the southern fringes of the city on Wednesday afternoon, triggering panic among the customers and mall employees.

The incident took place at around 1.15 p.m, when some of the employees spotted smoke billowing out of the basement of the mall. The matter was immediately informed to the police and fire brigade. Six fire tenders were pressed into action to douse the flames.

Police and security personnel evacuated the shopping mall and rescued the shoppers and employees. The area was soon covered in black smoke. As a result of this, some inmates of the adjacent building also came downstairs, as the smoke was spreading to that building as well.

Panic also spread among patients undergoing treatment at a private hospital situated close to the mall.

After being informed, police personnel from three police stations - Netaji Nagar, Patuli and Jadavpur, reached the spot to bring the situation under control. No one was reportedly injured in the incident.

The incident might not have caused any major damage to the mall, but created a ruckus, with panicked shoppers running helter-skelter from one portion of the mall to another. Police restricted traffic movement in the area for some time, to check any untoward incident.

Police and fire officials are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire and the extent of the damage.

Fire officials brought the situation under control within one and half hours. They are not ruling out the possibility of a short circuit being the reason behind the fire.