Saturday, November 5 2005 13:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kuala Lumpur: Hundreds of scared moviegoers fled a cinema complex located in a shopping mall attached to the gigantic Petronas Towers in the city after a fire broke out in the mall, filling the 13-screen movieplex with thick smoke.

About 800 people rushed out of the Tanjong Golden Village theatre on the third floor of the Suria KLCC mall attached to the Petronas Towers shortly before midnight yesterday (Nov 04, 2005). No casualties were reported.

The movieplex regularly screens Hindi and Tamil films, besides Hollywood blockbusters.

Moviegoers said smoke began entering the theatre just as it had begun to play the film.

"Thick smoke began filtering inside the theatre when the movie 'Garam Masala'' had just begun," Minati Panda, who had gone for the late night show with her husband, said.

"Children and adults were rushing out in panic as smoke filled the theatres, thank God there was no stampede," she said.

The fire apparently started in a stairway landing outside a restaurant on the first level of the Suria KLCC, but its cause was not immediately known, according to a fire service official.

Fire tenders reached the spot twenty minutes after the fire broke out.

The 88-floor Petronas Twin Towers was once the world's tallest skyscraper before being pushed back to second spot by a building in Taiwan.