Fire destroys Kabul market
AFGHANISTAN: A huge fire swept through a market in downtown Kabul on
Sunday, destroying hundreds of shops and forcing the city's nearby money
exchange to evacuate, police and witnesses said.
There were no reports of any casualties in the early morning blaze
which destroyed most of the cloth market's 500 shops, Kabul fire
department officials told AFP.
A fire department official speaking on condition of anonymity said an
electrical short circuit was the most likely cause of the fire, which
was so severe that NATO and Afghan army fire squads were called in to
help.
“We are all working together to get this under control,” the official
said. An AFP photographer at the scene said the fire had reduced
hundreds of shops to charcoal.
A Kabul police official who also spoke under condition of anonymity
told AFP separately that the nearby currency exchange market, the
war-torn country's largest, had to be evacuated as the fire approached
its outer walls.
“Police helped the money market evacuate and remove their money from
the market to safe places,” he said. The Afghan capital, which is home
to around five million people, has a poor fire safety reputation, though
the fire department was upgraded with international help after the fall
of the Taliban regime in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
AFP |