Suspected urchin fire guts Blantyre market - Merchandise worth millions of kwacha was incinerated in the wee hours of Monday after a fire, suspected to have been lit by street urchins, burnt down the busy Blantyre Flea Market, police confirmed here.

'A huge fire gutted the Blantyre Flea Market from around 3 am local time (Monday),' police spokesman Dave Chingwalu said, adding 'We suspect that the fire started after streets kids lit a bonfire to warm themselves up.'

At least one street kid, a 12-year-old boy, has since been arrested to help with investigations, according to Chingwalu.

Tens of streets kids seek shelter under the bridge of Mudi River that passes between the Blantyre Flea Market and the main Blantyre City Market.

According to statistics, there are about 2 million orphans in Malawi, 500,000 of whom live in the streets.

Angry vendors beat up any suspected street kid. At least one journalist was also beaten up as he tried to interview the vendors.

'I have lost my entire livelihood so why should someone come to ask what happened as if he is going to assist me?' one vendor was overheard as saying.

There was tension around the market as the vendors formed an impromptu vigilante to chase away any onlookers. Structures inside the market, built after President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered that there should be no street vending, were reduced to ashes.

Shells of hardware were strewn all over the place as the vendors tried to salvage what they could.

Government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati, who is also Information Minister, said government was saddened by the fire.

'Vendors are important to the economy for they help Government achieve Millennium Development Goals as they bring closer to the population goods while at the same time assisting their families,' she said. 'Government will see how we can help them.'

Kaliati said she suspected the fire to be the work of arsonists who she branded 'enemies of the state'.

'We will investigate this and bring everyone responsible to book,' she said. 'If they have issues with Government they shouldn't sabotage the economy.'

Of late there has been an increase in suspected arson attacks on properties belonging to government critics. Offices of activist Rafiq Hajat's Institute for Policy (IPI) in Blantyre and a house belonging acting Executive Director of the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), the Rev. MacDonald Sembereka, in the southern district of Balaka, were torched by a fire emanating from a molotov cocktail, laced with petrol.

Both activists were heavily involved in the unprecedented July 20 anti-government demonstrations in which 20 people died when police used live bullets to break the resultant looting.

Pana 19/09/2011