LAHORE, Feb 23: One shopkeeper died and 11 others suffered burn injuries when two shopping plazas and an adjacent building caught fire in a congested commercial locality of Ichhra on Wednesday, reducing around 100 shops to ashes.

A shot-circuit in two electricity transformers installed outside one of the plazas caused the blaze, SP Faran Baig told Dawn. He, however, could not confirm claims by some of the shopkeepers that a kite with metal strings had fallen on the transformers, causing the short circuit.

"I myself saw that the string hit the transformer," shopkeeper Naveed Ahmad said. The SP believed the number of the gutted shops should not be over 40 or 50, but an exact number would be counted after the fire was put out.

The SP said some four or five people affected by the fire had been rescued from the buildings, and, of them, at least one was stated to be in critical condition. "There might be more people in the plazas and in an adjoining building, which houses apartments.

We are making efforts to control the fire, but it is fast spreading due to fire-friendly items stored in the shops," he said at 9pm when the rescue operation was under way.

Dr Muhammad Adil at the Services Hospital said the shopkeeper admitted to the hospital in critical condition had died after first aid treatment. He was identified as Muhammad Rashid. The condition of at least three others is stated to be serious.

Another shopkeeper Khalil Butt said that first, a tent, set up for shelter in front of the shops, caught the fire at 4:30pm from the transformers. Later, flames enveloped the plazas.

"Nobody can determine the loss unless the rescue operation is completed and the shopkeepers calculate it. It (the loss), however, must be in millions," he said. Lahore Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood and city operations police chief Aftab Cheema rushed to the scene and supervised the operation, as it was the second big fire in the city within five days.