Fire guts 300 shops in Dhaka market

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(190330) -- DHAKA, March 30, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Volunteers help firefighters to douse flame after a fire broke out at a kitchen market in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 30, 2019. A fire gutted hundreds of shops in a kitchen market in Dhaka's Gulshan area on Saturday, destroying goods and property, said a firefighter. No casualties have so far been reported. The market was not open for business at the time when the fire broke out. (Xinhua/Stringer)

Dhaka, A fire gutted at least 300 shops in Bangladesh capital’s Gulshan area on Saturday, destroying huge amounts of goods and property, officials said.

A total of 20 fire units along with the Bangladesh Army, Navy personnel and shopkeepers battled the blaze for about two hours to bring it under control. No casualty was, however, reported as the market was not open for business when the fire broke out.

The blaze started at 5 a.m (local time) in the one-storey kitchen market called DNCC Market, housing some 350 shops, a fire service official told Xinhua news agency.

According to the official, the blaze gutted at least 300 shops in the market complex where groceries and other kitchen goods are sold. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

On January 3, 2017, a devastating fire had razed much of this market to rubble.

The Saturday fire incident comes after a devastating fire in a high-rise building in Dhaka earlier this week left 25 people dead and scores of others injured.

The high-rise building tragedy was the second deadly fire striking Dhaka this year, after a blaze ripped through several buildings in old Dhaka, killing at least 81 people on February 21.