Sydney - A man was in custody on Wednesday for starting a fire in the offices of an insurance company which injured 15 people in the northern Australia city of Darwin.

Police described the suspect as a 'disgruntled claimant' and stressed they were not dealing with a terrorist attack.

Office workers and shoppers were injured when a man wheeled a shopping trolley loaded with fireworks and petrol into the office and set fire to its contents.

None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening.

Northern Territory police commander Rob Kendrick said the suspect gave himself up after the mid-morning explosion that led to the evacuation of the shopping complex where the TIO insurance office is located.

TIO chief executive Richard Harding said the office did not receive threats before the explosion.

'At this stage, it appears to be a random event,' he said.

Louisa Ainsworth, who was shopping in the building when she heard the explosion, told public broadcaster ABC she saw people running in panic from the TIO office.

'I was shopping at Woolworths and then just started hearing all this crashing and banging, sort of like a roof was collapsing and sort of like a little explosion,' she said. 'We just went outside and saw all the smoke and people screaming and running out of TIO.'

Northern Territory Fire Brigade station manager Dave Lines said the supermarket complex was ablaze when crews arrived but the sprinkler system was in operation and the fire was quickly brought under control.

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