Massive Mandalay market fire destroys 1,500 shops

YANGON (Reuters) - A huge fire which raged for 13 hours through a big market building in Mandalay, Myanmar's second city, injured 21 people and destroyed more than 1,500 shops, official media and witnesses said on Tuesday.

Four Buddhist monks and three women were among those injured in the fire which took 78 fire engines and more than 4,000 people to put out on Monday, they said.

Altogether, 1,558 shops, including computer training schools, in the four-storey Yadanabon Market Building were destroyed in a fire started by an electrical fault on the ground floor, state-run newspapers said.

There was also a major fire on Monday on the western outskirts of Yangon, the former capital of the military-ruled country, which left nearly 3,000 people homeless after destroying 200 houses, the newspapers reported.

They said the fire in Hlaingthayar Township began with a kitchen accident.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Michael Battye)