KUALA LUMPUR: A fire broke out today at the front porch of Panggung Bandaraya, one of the capital city's most iconic buildings.
A City Hall source confirmed the incident after a video clip of the fire was sighted by the New Straits Times.
The NST is in the midst of gathering more details on the extent of the blaze.
In 2019, then Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan told the NST that the Panggung Bandaraya complex, which includes the Federated Malay States (FMS) Survey Office and the Supreme Court, was scheduled for a RM120 million upgrade.
He said that the historic buildings would be opened to the public soon and access would be free.
"Our main concern is securing the place. We need to have enough guards. I am afraid that the homeless will make the place theirs.
"They have been using the fountain in the area to bathe," he had told the NST in a special interview on Feb 3, 2020.
The decision to stretch the funds was based on Malaysian Institute of Architects' Heritage and Conservation Committee head Steven Thang's conservation strategy, pitched by the NST in a special report.
Thang, enlisted by the NST to analyse the complex's degradation over the years, had prescribed RM200 million to be spread over a decade or two.