PESHAWAR, Dec 18: A fire caused by short circuit destroyed a 175-year-old house in the Khudadad locality in the walled city on Thursday.

The house owned by Masood Ahmad, a trader, was destroyed and four adjacent houses were damaged.

According to residents of the area, the fire broke out in the second  flour of Mr Ahmad’s house in the afternoon, engulfed the three-storey building and spread to other houses. The blaze was controlled by fire fighters in about three hours.

No one was hurt in the fire which caused considerable material loss.

“The 175-year-old house had timber structure with ancient design,” they said and added that its owner was an uncle of Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan.

A house of former NWFP chief minister Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan was damaged in the fire. Three other houses, owned by Farman Ali, Ghulam Nabi, Ghulam Rasool and Haji Fazal Badshah, were also damaged, the residents said.