MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): Dozens of shops were reduced to ashes as a huge fire swept through a marketplace overnight in the capital of northern Balkh province, an official said on Saturday.
The fire broke out at 9pm Friday night at the Qayyumi market in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told Pajhwok Afghan News.
He said electricity to the market had been suspended when the fire erupted and an investigation was underway to ascertain the cause of the fire.
He added the fire was brought under control by security forces, firefighters from the Ghazanfar Group and the airport fire brigade until Saturday morning.
Rahimi said shopkeepers lost goods worth millions of afghanis to the fire that gutted more than a hundred shops.
Mohammad Naeem, one of the affected shopkeepers, said his garments worth 300,000 afghanis were destroyed in the fire. A majority of the shops sold garments, plastic and other goods, he said.
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