Fire at Petronas Twin Towers

Fire at Petronas Twin Towers

MALAYSIA: Hundreds of screaming and coughing moviegoers fled a
cinema complex in the Petronas Twin Towers after a fire filled a
shopping mall attached to the Malaysian landmark with thick,
acrid smoke. No serious injuries were reported.

About 700-800 people rushed from the 13-screen Tanjong Golden
Village facility on the third floor of the Suria KLCC mall
abutting towers shortly before midnight Friday, witnesses said.

"It was really terrible. People were running helter-skelter.
We were choking and coughing and it's a miracle there was no
stampede," said Minati Panda, a Kuala Lumpur resident who was at
the movies with her husband.

The fire started in a stairway landing outside a restaurant on
the first level of the Suria KLCC, but its cause was not
immediately known, said fire official Mahinder Singh. He said
foul play had not been ruled out.

One woman was taken to an ambulance, where she was given
oxygen.

The glass-and-steel Petronas Twin Towers, once the world's
tallest skyscraper before being upstaged to second place by a
building in Taiwan, are located in downtown Kuala Lumpur and are
Malaysia's most famous landmark, symbolizing the country's
economic progress. -- AP