Wellington, Oct 22 (AFP) A huge fire at a construction site sent clouds of acrid black smoke billowing over Auckland on Tuesday, forcing large parts of the downtown area to be cordoned off as firefighters battled the blaze.

The fire broke out on the roof of the SkyCity convention centre site shortly after 1:10pm (0010 GMT) and quickly spread, Fire and Emergency NZ said.

Office workers were warned to stay inside and turn off air conditioning as a thick pall of smoke engulfed the centre of New Zealand's largest city, but there were no reports on injuries.

Unconfirmed reports said the fire was started by a construction worker using a blowtorch on the building, which is one of the venues for the 2021 APEC summit being held in Auckland. (AFP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)