Hundreds of shops in Mandalay’s Mingalar Market have been left gutted after a devastating fire last night.
Witnesses said the blaze started on the ground floor in the early evening, after the market had closed. Fire fighters had to break down the doors to enter the building, and it took them more than six hours to extinguish the flames.
A few were injured in the attempt, an officer from the Mandalay Fire Department told Eleven Media.
“We don’t know the reason for the fire,” he said.
Mingalar Market, which opened in 1998, contained 370 shops on the ground floor alone, plus 264 on the first and 232 on the second. Most of the shop owners did not have insurance, Eleven reported.
