A fire broke out in the laboratory of the haematology department on the fourth floor of the MCH Building of Calcutta Medical College and Hospital around 5.35pm on Monday.
Five fire tenders reached the lab, which houses several sophisticated machinery and stores drugs for HIV, and doused the flames.
A team of senior police officers led by commissioner of city police Vineet Kumar Goyal reached the hospital as panic spread with flames leaping out of the lab’s windows in the evening.
Hospital officials said since there were no patients at the site where the fire broke out, no one had to be evacuated. Police said no one was injured.
“The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. But a short-circuit is suspected to be behind it,”said a senior official of the fire and emergency services department.