MIRPURKHAS: At least 18 shops in the Mirpurkhas grain market were gutted when a fire broke out in one of them on Tuesday morning.

Affected shopkeepers said that a cause of the fire could not immediately be known but it started in one of the shops all of a sudden and engulfed 17 others within minutes. All merchandise worth millions of rupees was reduced to ashes, they said.

The local fire brigade rushed to the spot and prevented the fire from reaching the adjacent fish and some other markets.

Mirpurkhas SSP Usman Ghani Siddique supervised the fire-fighting operation that continued for four hours.