”The whole building’s up in flames. Black smoke is billowing through the roof. It looks like a pretty serious accident,” eye witness Omar Khalaf told local paper Göteborgsposten (GP).

The fire started around 8am in a boating yard on the banks of the Göta Älv in Gothenburg on Monday. The heavy build up of smoke forced police to quickly evacuate buildings north of the site.

When emergency services arrived on the scene the fire was raging in a warehouse where boats, trucks and marine equipment were kept. The building also contained a number of gas canisters of the type that are usually used in pleasure crafts.

”They’ve all gone off,” said head of the emergency services Ingemar Waldeby to Sveriges Radio.

Police reported that although no boats were in the hall at the time of the fire, there were several standing outside and crafts to the value of several million kronor were reported to be lost in the flames.

At 9.20 am the emergency services reported that the building had collapsed and that ”everything is burning in a great heap”.

”The building is completely destroyed and we have no way of entering but have to work from the outside. Most have burnt down, but there is still a risk the fire could spread to nearby buildings,” said Håkan Alexandersson of the emergency services to GP.

In order to minimize the risk to the public, police cordoned off the nearby area and redirected traffic but the fire was reported to be under control with only smoke stills seen billowing from the site at 10.30am.

”We are starting to phase down the action now, but we’ll have a smaller strength on the site all day,” Alexandersson told the paper shortly before 11am.