At least six people were wounded and nearly a dozen fell unconscious from suffocation when a fire erupted in a congested cloth market in Sargodha on Tuesday.
Rescuers said the fire engulfed over 100 shops and reduced merchandise worth millions of rupees to ashes, besides razing two shops to ground.
The residential areas surrounding the market were also evacuated as six fire tenders started to put out the fire, aided by four firefighting tankers of the Pakistan Air Force. The rescuers said they were having difficulty in extinguishing the fire because of the congested streets of the market. The fire could not be put out until the filing of this report. Power supply also remained suspended.