Oz: 8 Indians escape as building catches fire

Around eight Indian residents of a flat made a narrow escape, as they evacuated it following an explosion in an internet cafe below due to a "suspicious" fire in the building in the wee hours of Monday morning.

Residents, who were sharing a flat above the internet cafe in Sydney Road, Brunswick, were woken by a loud bang just before 1.30 am local time, according to The Age.

Metropolitan Fire Brigade Acting Commander Steve Dorman said the group was prompted by smoke alarms to escape, as the cafe's front windows blew out and the brick two-storey building caught fire.

The fire gutted the cafe and a ground-floor residence at the rear of the building where the café's owners lived.

Dorman said the pair was luckily out at the time of the fire, but returned to find their business and home destroyed.

The upstairs flat escaped damage as about 25 firefighters spent an hour struggling to bring the fire under control.

None of the upstairs residents were injured.

The damage to the cafe was estimated at about $ 2,00,000 (about Rs 2,95,106).

Minutes before this accident, a fire had spread quickly through the Nutex Paper warehouse in Nicholson Street in East Brunswick as paper products fuelled the flames.

Firefighters managed to contain the damage to the rear of the brick single-storey building.

Both the fires are considered suspicious and are being investigated by police.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said it was too early to say what had caused the cafe explosion.

The cafe fire led to a large gas leak and barricades were erected to ensure the building did not collapse.