PESHAWAR, May 23: At least 30 mobile phone shops were gutted when fire broke out on the first floor of Time Centre commercial plaza on main Saddar Road near Stadium Chowk here on Thursday evening.

The fire engulfed the entire plaza and it took two hours for the fire fighters to extinguish it. It was observed that the owners of the nearby shops were shifting their belongings to safer places in panic.

A shopkeeper, Asif Khan, told Dawn that the traders managed to come out of the building as soon as the fire broke out, saying that they faced great hardships due to the narrow exit from the plaza.

“I was also inside a shop and hurriedly came out through the rear gate when people started crying for help,” he said.

Local magistrate Habib Arif said that there was no casualty in the incident because the traders had been safely evacuated. He said that rescuers reached the site timely and extinguished the fire.

A spokesman for Rescue 1122 said that five fire tenders took part in the operation.

Shopkeepers told Dawn that the loss was huge because the owners failed to shift mobile phone sets and accessories. An official of West Cantonment police station said that the fire broke out due to explosion of a power generator.

THREE KILLED: Three persons riding a motorcycle were killed when they fell on the road at Hayatabad phase-III on Thursday evening.

A local police official said that all the three fell from the motorcycle while overtaking a vehicle. One of the victims was identified as Zafran while identity of the other two could not be ascertained. — Bureau