UPDATE: Fire at Nigerian govt. federal secretariat contained

The fire at the federal secretariat in Abuja has been extinguished.

But the vicinity of the complex remains in pandemonium, our correspondents say.

A spokesperson for the Federal Fire Service said his agency received alert on the incident 30 minutes after the fire started.

He said there was no casualty in the incident but that his agency was yet to establish the cause of the fire.

Read our earlier report on the incidence below:

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The complex housing major government offices in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, is on fire.

A PREMIUM TIMES reporter at the scene said the fire started from the section of the complex occupied by the Federal Ministry of Education and fire fighters are battling to save the inferno from spreading to adjourning buildings.

The fire, witnesses said, began at the sixth floor of the building and is believed to have affected the seventh and eighth floors.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, but thick smoke, billowing into the sky, has engulfed the building and surrounding ones.

Workers in the building were seen scampering for safety while a number of staff and visitors are believed to be trapped in the complex.

Our correspondents say fire fighters have arrived the scene and are battling to put out the fire.

The firemen are however said to be scrambling for ladders to climb up to the top floors where the fire began.

Some workers at the complex said the fire equipments at the building were not functional, hampering efforts to extinguish the fire.

“All the fire extinguishers in the building have expired,” one official said. “That could have been used to extinguish the fire at it first started. But they didn’t work.”