LAHORE, Feb 18: A guard was killed and valuables worth millions of rupees were gutted when a multi-storey shopping plaza caught fire at Liberty Market on Friday.

"Loss is in millions, but no exact figure has so far been determined," owner Bashir Ahmad of the shopping centre told reporters. He said renovation of the plaza had lately been completed.

The third floor of the plaza caught fire early morning at around 6am, police said and added its security guards and neighbours called out them (police) and fire tenders.

More than 15 fire fighting units rushed to the scene. The fire fighters, when managed to get inside the building after an effort of three hours, found one of the guards lying unconscious. Identified as Zafar Iqbal, 45, the guard was rushed to hospital where he died before receiving first aid.

The rescue work continued for the whole day even after the fire was put out in six hours. Cranes were used to reach the upper portions of the building. Announcements were made by the police on loudspeakers, asking neighbouring shopkeepers to vacate their shops as the plaza had fire-friendly items stored in it.

Governor Khalid Maqbool, District Nazim Amer Mahmood, and the senior police command reached the spot and supervized the operation. The Nazim said that the city government would make mandatory for all big stores and shopping plazas to make all necessary arrangements to meet such eventualities.

"They will be asked to have all fire fighting equipment with them." Besides, he claimed work was under way to update the city government fire-fighting unit. Till the evening, work to vacate the plaza was in process, and its owner had not yet conveyed to the police as to how much loss the fire had caused.

"We will be in a position to determine the exact loss once we vacate the building." It may be mentioned that this was third big shopping mall, which was gutted by fire in less than a year in the city.