Bhopal: A fire broke out at a restaurant located on the first floor of a two-storey building in Bhopal on Sunday morning, officials said. No casualties were reported in the incident, which occurred in the Lalghati commercial area of the Madhya Pradesh capital, they said, adding that furniture and other installations on the premises were damaged.

Thick smoke billowed from the building and was visible from a considerable distance before firefighters extinguished the blaze. “We received a distress call at 8.40 am. Five fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the blaze was brought under control by 10 am,” Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s fire brigade officer Saurabh Patel told PTI.

A preliminary investigation suggested that a short circuit triggered the blaze. Furniture, tables and other items inside the restaurant were damaged in the fire, he said. As many as five cooking gas cylinders were removed from the restaurant in time, preventing the blaze from escalating, the official added.