Counting the cost of Sunday's blaze at Libya Market (Photo: Al-Ahram)
Egyptian authorities have pledged LE1 million ($164,000) to speed the reopening of a popular outdoor market in Marsa Matrouh partially destroyed by a fire on Sunday.
A total of 312 shops were seriously damaged when a blaze sparked by an electricity fault spread through Libya Market in the northwest Egyptian coastal city early on Sunday morning.
Matrouh's governor Ahmed Helmy Haytami said the LE1 million would help reopen outlets untouched by the fire, adding that the market will be reconnected to the local electricity grid on Monday.
Haytami said an extra sum of LE5,000 will be given as initial compensation for businessholders affected by the fire, whose total losses are estimated at LE10 million ($1.7m).
No one was killed in the conflagration, but authorities reported at least 12 injuries.
Eyewitnesses to Sunday's inferno claimed there was a shortage of fire-fighting staff and insufficient water supplies to extinguish the blaze.
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