The incident was reported to the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) at around 2.01 pm on August 17. The fire brigade declared it a Level-I fire at 2.10 pm. It was later upgraded to Level-2 at 2.45 pm

According to the fire brigade, the blaze was confined to the basement of the building, which comprises a basement, ground floor and seven upper floors. Firefighting operations were underway as officials worked to prevent the blaze from spreading to other parts of the structure.

An evacuation operation was also underway to bring people stranded on the upper floors to safety.

Teams from the Mumbai Fire Brigade were deployed along with personnel from the police, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), 108 ambulance services and BMC ward staff.

Senior fire officials and multiple firefighting units were deployed at the site as operations continued.

Thick plumes of smoke were seen billowing from the building, with smoke spreading to several floors above the basement

Employees were inside the building when the fire broke out on Monday, triggering urgent rescue and evacuation operations as thick smoke engulfed the upper floors

No injuries have been reported so far. Further details are awaited

The multi-storey government building serves as a workplace for a large number of Income Tax Department officials and houses various offices and tax authorities

The MFB deployed a DFO, ADFO, three Senior Station Officers and two Station Officers, along with three fire engines, one CFF, three jet units, one AWTT, one MWT, one Bavan, one WQRV, one TTL and one ALP.