A massive fire broke out at a slum in Calcutta’s Bagbazar area on Wednesday evening, said the police.

At least twenty five fire tenders were pressed into service to bring down the fire that engulfed several houses in the slum on Kshirode Vidyavinode Avenue beside the Bagbazar Women's College near Chitpore Lock Gate Bridge.

According to officials blasts were heard in the slum, which the police suspect to be of gas cylinders that burst in houses that caught fire, officials said.

There were no reports of any casualty yet, they maintained.

“The reason for the fire is not known. The firemen are fighting it tooth and nail and hopefully, it will soon be under control,” a senior officer of the Calcutta Police said.

“The blaze also spread to the adjacent Sarada Mayer Bari as the firefighters escorted the saints out,” an officer of the fire department said.

“The reason for the fire is not yet known. The firemen are fighting it tooth and nail and hopefully, it will soon be under control. We have emptied the entire area. There were several blasts, which could be because of the gas cylinders,” a senior police officer said.

Locals alleged that firefighters reached the spot at least an hour late, because of which the fire went out of control.

A couple of police vehicles were vandalised, following which a team of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) was deployed to control the irate mob.

The fire during the evening rush hours led to a massive traffic snarl in the area, informed the officials. “Traffic movement on the Kshirode Vidyavinode Avenue as well as the Chitpore Lock Gate Bridge, the lifeline of the people living in the northern fringes of the city, was totally stopped,”he said.

“We have also snapped electricity supply in the entire area. There are at least 40 families whose houses have been gutted in the fire. A godown of books has also gutted,” the police officer said.