Three people died and a 21-year-old woman working at a maid cafe was in critical condition after a fire broke out just before 10 p.m. Thursday night in a building in Hiroshima's entertainment district, police said Friday.

Police found two bodies — one of a man and the other of a woman — believed to be of a 28-year-old worker at a maid cafe and a customer in the two-story multitenant Naka Ward building. A 36-year-old male customer died later Friday morning

The building in which the cafe was situated was engulfed in flames and smoke, and the adjacent building burned down as well. The fire was finally put out on Friday morning, nearly nine hours after it started.

Five other customers and employees suffered minor injuries, police said.

There were 11 maids and a male manager and about 10 customers in the cafe when the fire broke out. Because it did not go off automatically, a male employee set off a fire alarm and also tried, unsuccessfully, to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher, investigators said.

The fire took place in the biggest entertainment district in the region. On Thursday night, several fire engines were at the scene, with fire fighters hosing the building down.

"I thought it was just a small fire at first, but then I heard a girl screaming and saw black smoke so I evacuated outside," said a man, 41, who was dining at a nearby restaurant at the time. "Girls surrounded a man who had collapsed in the street, and there was a girl dressed in a maid's outfit with her face smeared black (from the smoke)."