LAHORE: Seven garment shops on Saturday were gutted in a blaze in Kahna Bazaar, burning the merchandise.

According to an official of the Rescue 1122 emergency service, the the fire first erupted in a shop and later spread to six others.

He said the service on being informed of the fire by a trader immediately dispatched eight vehicles to deal with the emergency.

He said the blaze that spread swiftly had already engulfed the shops when the Rescue 1122 firefighter arrived at the spot.

He said it took the firefighters about an hour to extinguish the fire, adding that the cause of the blaze was yet to be identified.

The garments and other valuables in the shops were gutted in the incident, he said. In another incident, a car caught fire in a parking lot of a known garments market at the Main Boulevard, Gulberg.

The fire completely burnt down the vehicle before the arrival of the Rescue 1122 firefighters.

Some witnesses told police that the owner parked the car outside the Origa Centre and went away.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2018