PESHAWAR, Jan 19: More than 150 shops and cabins, dealing in imported carpets and blankets, in one of the plazas at the Karkhano market were reduced to ashes when a fire broke out reportedly due to electric short circuit in a shop on Friday.

The fire broke out in the Nauman Carpet shop and soon it engulfed other shops, witnesses said. Besides carpets and blankets, cash kept in safes of shops was also burnt.

According to shopkeepers’ association president Mohammad Zubair, the fire caused a loss of over two billion rupees.