The 17th Century Børsen is one of the oldest buildings in the city.

Culture minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt told BBC 400 years of Danish cultural heritage had gone up in flames.

The public was seen rushing towards the fire engulfed structure as they tried to rescue the paintings.

It took hours for the firefighters to bring the flame under control.

“I cannot describe how upset I and my colleagues are,” Brian Mikkelsen, CEO of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which owns and has offices in the 17th century building, told CNN.

Denmark’s Deputy Prime Minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, posted on X: "Terrible pictures from the Stock Exchange. So sad. An iconic building that means a lot to all of us, I think. Our own Notre Dame moment."

He was referring to the fie incident which destroyed the roof and spire of the Paris cathedral a few years ago.

The fire began at around 8.30 a.m. local time (2.30 a.m. ET), a Copenhagen fire department chief told CNN, and by 11 a.m. nearly half of the building had been destroyed. The fire was still burning by late afternoon.

The Chamber of Commerce said it is “at a loss for words for how great a tragedy this is.” It said it was “a sad day for our country” and that “the damage will unfortunately be very expensive.”

“We have tried to rescue a lot of historic paintings that were inside the building and the historic furniture,” Jakob Vedsted Andersen, an executive director at the Greater Copenhagen fire and rescue service, told CNN. He said it was “way too soon” to speculate about the causes of the blaze.

No casualties were reported in the incident.