By Ayman Amzein.
Benghazi, 23 June 2014:
Benghazi’s Egyptian market was turned into an inferno this afternoon as fire destroyed several stores and . . .[restrict]shops causing hundreds of thousands of dinars worth of damage. Six people were injured and 20 vehicles left as burnt wrecks.
It is the third time in the past two years that the market, the main carpet and furniture suq in the city, has been set ablaze. Two years ago, in a fire said to have been caused by an electrical short-circuit, an Egyptian worker died.
It was neither an electrical fault nor the current fighting in the city that was the cause this time. A store of fireworks is said to have exploded. Flames rapidly spread, destroying some 20 shops and stores as well as parked vehicles.
By this evening, fire officials said that the blaze had been brought under control. They and the police are still investigating the blaze.
