The Hall of Jus­tice had to be evac­u­at­ed short­ly af­ter 1 pm on Thurs­day af­ter smoke was de­tect­ed in the build­ing.

At around 1.15 pm, judges, lawyers, Ju­di­cia­ry staff and mem­bers of the pub­lic were alert­ed by the fire alarm.

There was some con­fu­sion as there were no fire mar­shals were on hand to di­rect peo­ple out of the build­ing or fol­low an evac­u­a­tion pro­ce­dure.

How­ev­er, the build­ing was evac­u­at­ed with­in 15 min­utes.

Ju­di­cia­ry spokesper­son Carl Fran­cis told Guardian Me­dia main­taince staff dis­cov­ered that the smoke was com­ing from a worn belt on an air-con­di­tion unit. They re­paired the is­sue and staff were in­vit­ed to re­turn in­side the build­ing.