By Brian Johnson - 18th May 2009
The European commission's Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels has been evacuated following a fire.
Thousands of EU bureaucrats crammed into the streets outside the commission's flagship building in the heart of the EU's institutional quarter.
Thick clouds of billowing black smoke appeared from a ventilation shaft on the roof of the building around 1pm local time.
A fire official is reported as saying the blaze began in a structure housing electrical cabling and technical equipment at the top of the structure.
The emergency services quickly rushed to the building to contain the incident.
Gavin Ramsay, a 23-year-old external contractor from London who was fitting an art exhibition in the commission, told TheParliament.com, "We were on the first floor and a security guard came in to ask if we were smoking.
"The next thing we knew, all the alarms went off and luckily they told us we needed to get out of the building because we didn't really understand what was happening.
"We could smell smoke and it was a little bit hazy in the stairwells."
Journalists in the building at the time said the initial evacuation was "chaotic" as smoke began filling the building's lower areas.
"No one told us to get out, and the fire alarm didn't activate until after we decided to leave," they said.
It has been reported that staff have been told to go home for the day and call tomorrow to find out if the building will be open.
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