ISLAMABAD: A fire broke out on the third floor of Prime Minister Office on Monday but a timely response by the emergency and rescue staf f and the city administration prevented it from spreading to other parts of the premises.

When the fire broke out Prime Minister Imran Khan was holding a meeting in his of fice on the fif th floor. He was informed about the incident and asked to leave the place immediately. However, he wanted to know the intensity of the fire. On the insistence of his senior staf f members and security officials, he lef t his of fice.

The whole building was evacuated and staff members were asked to leave the place promptly. No injury or serious damage to the furnitureorofficialrecordsinside the building was reported.

There was no official statement about the cause of the fire.

Adviser to the PM on Media Affairs Yousaf Baig Mirza later told reporters that an inquiry to ascertain the cause would soon be launched.

Emergency and Disaster Management Director Zaf ar Iqbal told Dawn that the fire had erupted in a duct carrying wires of telephone and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras inside a washroom on the third floor of the building at around 12:55pm.

He said the emergency and rescue staff stationed at PM Of fice responded quickly and they extinguished the fire within between 10 and 15 minutes following which a cooling process continued for an hour. Fire tenders of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and Pakistan Navy also reached the spot.