Hundreds of panicked cinema-goers ran screaming from Malaysia's soaring twin-towers complex yesterday after a fire broke out during a late-night screening of Chicken Little, witnesses and police said.

No one was seriously injured, police said. "We smelt acrid smoke and felt the heat from the nearby cinema hall, but we didn't see flames," said Ahmad Shahel, an advertising professional who was in the cinema at around midnight when thick, acrid black smoke started to billow out.

"People were yelling and shouting. They ran to the doors, which seemed to be locked, but we were able to pull the doors open and come out," he told Reuters outside the towers, which at 88 storeys claim to be the world's highest set of twin buildings.

One woman, an oxygen mask over her face, was treated for smoke inhalation in an ambulance parked at the complex, but a policeman said hers was an isolated case. "I think everyone has come out. We don't expect any serious casualties," he said.