Fire at Suria KLCC, 5,000 evacuated

Thousands of people were evacuated from the iconic Suria KLCC shopping mall  this evening when the kitchen of a restaurant caught fire.

An emergency call was received by the Federal Territories Fire and Rescue Department at 5.28pm, its deputy operations director Azizan Ismail said.

However, when the four fire engines with 30 men arrived at the scene 10 minutes later, the fire at the restaurant Chinoz by the Park had already been put out, except inside the exhaust ducts.

Azizan told reporters that much of the fire was put out by the KLCC emergency response unit and the mall's fire suppression system.

The fire-fighting efforts took about 15 minutes.

“About 5,000 people were evacuated, all within 10 minutes,” he said, adding that nobody was injured.

The evacuation was orderly, and a fire drill held three weeks ago may have helped in this, Azizan said.

However,Malaysiakini spotted a woman, who appeared conscious, being carried into an ambulance.

Those evacuated to the area around the fountain at the park next to Suria KLCC cheered when the mall was reopened at 6.38pm.

People in the offices in the KLCC Twin Towers were not evacuated.

Chinoz on the Park has been cordoned off by the fire department for further investigation.

Many of the retail outlets opened soon after the mall reopened. The Isetan departmental store reopened about 8pm.

Book publisher Amir Muhammad, who was at the scene, toldMalaysiakini earlier that he smelt smoke while he was at the top floor of the shopping mall.

Photographs posted by other eye-witnesses on Twitter show white smoke billowing from the roof of the mall.