One person was killed and 18 others injured in a fire on Thursday at the headquarters of Tunisia's Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, authorities and party members said.

According to an AFP report, two leading party figures were among those injured in the blaze.

It notes that former prime minister and Ennahdha Vice President Ali Laaryadh was hospitalized after jumping from the second floor of the building to escape the flames, as was advisory board head Abdelkarim Harouni.

The party's president Rached Ghannouchi, speaker of Tunisia's suspended parliament, was not in the building at the time.

The blaze came three days after the party warned it was facing an orchestrated "defamation" campaign aimed at shutting it out of national politics.