A fire has broken out at Copenhagen’s Old Stock Exchange, engulfing its spire which collapsed onto the roof in a scene reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris’ Notre-Dame cathedral.

The 17th-century building, which is situated next to the Christiansborg Palace where the parliament sits, is one of Copenhagen’s most famous landmarks and a popular tourist attraction. 

Huge billows of smoke rose over downtown Copenhagen and people were seen rushing inside the building to save paintings. Danish media reported that an annex of the parliament was being evacuated.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, police said.

“Horrible pictures from the Bourse. So sad. An iconic building that means a lot to all of us … Our own Notre-Dame moment,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen wrote on social media platform X.

The spire, which was shaped as the tails of four dragons intertwined, reached a height of 56 metres.

The scaffolding around the building undergoing renovations made it harder for emergency services to extinguish the flames, while the copper roof preserved the heat, the Copenhagen fire department said.

The nearby finance ministry was evacuated as a result of the fire, the police said.

The Dutch Renaissance style building no longer houses the Danish stock exchange, but serves as headquarters for the Danish Chamber of Commerce.

“We are met by a terrible sight. The Bourse is on fire,” the Chamber of Commerce wrote on X.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze.

Copenhagen police asked people to avoid driving in the inner part of the city.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce, which has owned the building since 1857, has worked on restoring it to the style of Denmark’s King Christian IV, who had the building constructed in the 17th-century.

“400 years of Danish cultural heritage in flames,” Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said.

Reuters/AP