(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. said a fire may have broken out at its headquarters in Western Japan, forcing the automaker to evacuate dozens of employees. No injuries were reported.
The incident occurred at about 4:40 p.m. at the carmaker's research and development facilities on the eighth floor of one of its buildings in Toyota City, near Nagoya. It's unclear whether it was a fire or just smoke, spokeswoman Haruka Kaneda said. The cause hasn't been identified, according to the company.
Twelve fire engines went to the scene, the local fire department said. Japanese television networks didn't break into regular programming, with national broadcaster NHK streaming live images on its website.
Images of the building didn't show any serious damage to the structure, with much of the smoke already dissipated. Toyota didn't say what department was on the floor. Dozens of employees were milling around outside, and several fire hoses snaked into the building.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ma Jie in Tokyo at jma124@bloomberg.net;Masatsugu Horie in Tokyo at mhorie3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson, Ville Heiskanen
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