Parts of the Takoradi Central Market have been gutted by fire  Saturday night. The fire started around 8:00 pm by which time a number of the market women had left the market.

Ten stalls were said to have been razed down completely in the blaze. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

Joy News' Western Region correspondent Nana Adwoa Entsuah reported some market women as saying there was smoke emanating from the centre of the market, then a blast which triggered the fire.

The police and later fire service  personnel quickly came to the scene to put out the fire.

They were said to have prevented the market women from entering the market to remove their wares,  a development that made some of the market women present very anxious.

The Metropolitan Chief Executive Captain Rtd Anthony Cudjoe applauded the officials of the fire service personnel for the expeditious manner with which they arrived on the scene of the fire.

While sympathising with some market women who lost their wares to the fire, he said drastic measures must be taken in order to avert such fire outbreaks in the future.