A massive fire has broken out in a shopping mall in Baku's Nizami district, RFE/RL reports.

Azerbaijan's Emergency Situations Ministry said on March 26 that employees of the Diglas trade center had been evacuated.

An RFE/RL correspondent reports from the scene that firefighters are trying to extinguish the blaze in the upper floors of the five-story building.

Two helicopters have been dispatched to the site to help tackle the fire.

Local media quoted the city's ambulance service as saying that 10 people had been diagnosed with smoke poisoning.

Emergency Situations Minister Kamaladdin Heydarov, top police officials, and local authorities are at the site.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.