A fire broke out at the former home of late “King of Gambling” Stanley Ho Hung-sun in Hong Kong’s upmarket Repulse Bay area on Tuesday afternoon, forcing seven workers to flee.

The blaze started at No 1 Repulse Bay Road after a water pump for an aquarium short-circuited and exploded, authorities said.

A call was made to emergency services at 2.45pm but the flames had already died down before firefighters arrived. Some electrical cables were damaged in the fire.

No injuries were reported. A police spokesman confirmed that the owner of the house was not present at the time.