A FIRE that engulfed a main telecom company building in downtown Cairo on Monday left four workers dead and over two dozen injured, Egyptian officials said today.

The blaze, which broke out at the landmark 10-storey Telecom Egypt building and lasted for hours, began in one of the halls on the floor housing telecom operators and spread to other floors due to its intensity, authorities said.

The four dead were company employees who had been inside the burning building, according to their workers’ union.

Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said that the number of the injured increased from 14 to 26, including those who suffered from smoke suffocation.

All were hospitalised and some have been discharged, he said.

By this morning, the upper part of the building was charred and firefighters were still spraying water as smoke billowed from the top floors, though the massive flames had been contained.

The blaze prompted a temporary outage of internet and mobile phone services, but Communications Minister Amr Talaat said in a statement that all will gradually be fully restored within 24 hours and that alternative lines for emergency services are being set up.