A fire broke out in a godown on the ground floor of a three-storeyed building a few metres away from Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar on Thursday.

Thick smoke enveloped the stretch on RN Mukherjee Road around 10.50am when people spotted the fire on the ground floor.

Hundreds of people ran out of the building after the fire was detected. Police said no one was trapped or injured.

Six fire tenders doused the flames and cooled the insides.

That part of Calcutta’s original office district was cordoned off, resulting in traffic snarls. The godown is located on 21, RN Mukherjee Road, close to Mangoe Lane on one hand and Lalbazar Street on the other.

The stretch is lined with offices and old buildings that remain busy during office hours.

People in the locality said the smoke had reduced visibility on the roads around the entire stretch.

The building on RN Mukherjee Road that houses the godown where the fire broke out

The godown belonging to an engineering company had motor parts, fire department officials said.

The police suspect an electrical short circuit in an air-conditioning machine could have caused the fire.

The exact cause of the fire, however, can only be ascertained after forensic tests.

Commuters passing through Lalbazar Street faced congestion for over an hour as fire tenders worked to extinguish the fire. “It took me 30 minutes to cross the stretch,” said a resident of Garia who was heading towards Lalbazar from Dalhousie.

Firefighters outside the building on RN Mukherjee Road on Thursday

In Shyampukur, a fire broke out on the ground floor of a four-storeyed residential building on Balaram Ghosh Street on Wednesday evening. Police said no one was injured.