DHAKA, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi Navy personnel have been deployed to help put out a devastating market fire that damaged some 500 shops in capital Dhaka since early Tuesday.
No casualties have so far been reported.
Hundreds of shops in the two-storey market located at Dhaka's diplomatic enclave Gulshan were gutted. Parts of the market that sell food, kitchen items, apparels, cosmetics, ornaments, toys, furniture and electronics collapsed.
The market's kitchen portion on the eastern side has been totally burnt down.
A firefighter said the fire, which broke out at around 2:30 a.m. local time, raged on till 2:30 p.m., adding that 22 units of firefighters were still trying to control the fire.
The exact cause of the fire was yet to be known.
The Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence has set up a five-member committee to probe into the incident.
