Fire gutted hundreds of shops

It was a “looting spree”last Friday, when an early morning fire destroyed some parts of Kantamanto market in Accra.

While fear gripped shop owners because of the intensity of the fire outbreak, thereby shifting their attention towards quenching it, some criminals loitering around took advantage of the situation to break into shops to steal items.

Madam Theresa Abiease, a shop owner at the scene said, shortly after the market went up in flames, people were seen breaking into other parts of the shops which were partly affected by the fire and stealing items before the intervention of the security personnel.

The looters took advantage of the situation and made away with some goods which were affected by the fire.

She said, the criminals pretend helping to relocate goods which were not affected by the fire then later took them away unnoticed

Though the police managed to control the situation by arresting some of the looters, others, too, escaped due to the overwhelming number of the people at the scene.

Whilst our photographer on the scene captured the fire outbreak, some scrap dealers were also seen removing copper wires from burnt electric sewing machines.

Some shop owners were sad but took the risk to quench the fire on their own at their various shops as well as prevented people from stealing their belongings.

By Geoffrey Buta