A plume of thick, black smoke was seen billowing over Whampoa on Sunday morning after a fire broke out at a coffeeshop on Balestier Road.

The incident took place at 10.45am at 567 Balestier Road, said a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spokesman, who added that the unit was engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived at the scene.

SCDF firefighters managed to extinguished the fire, which was confined to the coffeeshop, within 20 minutes.

A man from the neighbouring unit, however, was conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital as a "precautionary measure" after he suffered minor abrasions while rushing out of the unit, said the spokesman.

The thick smoke and blaze could be spotted from the Pan Island Expressway (PIE), according to contributors to citizen-journalism website Stomp. One netizen said: "I was driving on the PIE towards Stevens Road, when suddenly my family and I saw thick, black smoke somewhere around upper Thomson Road on the left side of the road."

Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing, said the SCDF.