100 shops gutted at massive blaze in Chandi Chowk market

In the narrow bylanes of Delhi's Chandni Chowk, firefighters toiled for hours to douse a blaze that overnight gutted around 100 shops of a wholesale market of electrical and electronic goods. Ignoring the sounds of blasts and policemen warning of buildings collapsing, dejected traders, who had their faces covered with handkerchiefs to prevent the stench, waited impatiently to enter their incinerated shops to recover whatever they could. The haze of smoke billowed from the burnt-out shops at Mahalaxmi Market in the Bhagirath Palace area, the largest wholesale markets for electrical and electronics in the country.