Blaze engulfs Egyptian parliament

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A large fire erupted Tuesday in Egypt's parliament, and five people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, officials said.

There was no official word on the cause of the blaze, which ravaged a 19th century palace where parliament's upper house is located. Dozens of fire trucks were at the scene.

Flames shot from windows across the top floor of the three-story building, and gutted interior walls were visible inside.

While firefighters focused on one corner of the building, the blaze burned heavier on a second corner, spreading to the second floor. Two helicopters scooped water from the nearby Nile River in small buckets and dumped it onto the blaze.

Thick black smoke billowed over downtown Cairo, and rush hour traffic gridlocked from the fire trucks.

Evacuated employees said authorities told them they had ruled out terrorism, and that an electrical short-circuit had likely sparked the fire.

Those hospitalized included parliament employees and firefighters, said Ahmad Salah, the fire operations supervisor.

Riot police created a cordon outside the parliament complex, located on a busy downtown thoroughfare. Tourists and locals stopped to snap photographs with cell phone cameras.

The extent of damage was not immediately known.

Egypt requires some fire-safety measures in buildings, including fire extinguishers, but in general the rules are not strictly enforced.

The country's deadliest blaze was in February 2002, when flames swept through a crowded passenger train south of Cairo, killing 370 people.

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