Manado. A fire at Megamall Manado in the eastern Indonesian city of Manado killed a female employee and injured four visitors on Saturday night, authorities said.

The victim was identified as Pricilia Tamawiwy, who died after becoming trapped during the incident.

“The incident occurred at around 8:45 p.m. The victim was found already deceased,” Manado Metro Police chief Irham Halid said at the scene.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze within about an hour after deploying 11 fire trucks and a police water cannon vehicle.

Four people who were near the source of the fire -- identified as Stenly, Gilbert Sangir, Adit, and Nando Tara -- were rescued and are currently receiving intensive treatment at Bhayangkara Hospital for minor burn injuries.

Police are still investigating the cause of the fire and assessing material losses resulting from the incident.

Preliminary information suggested the fire may have originated on the third floor of the shopping mall.

“The Megamall area remains closed to the public and has been secured with police lines to support the investigation and cooling process,” Irham said.

Jessica Jamaludin, an employee at one of the stores on the third floor, said panic spread rapidly after thick black smoke was seen rising from the Amazon arcade area.

“The situation inside the building immediately became tense because visibility started to deteriorate as the smoke kept thickening,” Jessica said.

Management at her workplace immediately ordered the store to close and instructed all employees to evacuate.

“Our boss immediately told us to shut the store. We locked the rolling door and ran outside to save ourselves,” she said.

Jessica described the evacuation as chaotic, with hundreds of people on the upper floors rushing down emergency stairways and escalators toward the ground floor and open areas outside the mall.

“Everyone was already panicking. From the third floor, people immediately ran down to the first floor,” she said.

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