A loud explosion and jarring movement rattled workers at the two-storey Seremban Main Market here before fire broke out on its upper floor tonight.

A worker was weighing vegetables from a lorry when he heard the explosion, which caused reverberations in the ground floor where he was standing.

“The fire occurred after the explosion and a trader from another outlet knocked on the common zinc wall to alert me of the blaze.

“I noticed the upper floor of the market was already ablaze. My friends and I ran to safer ground and the Fire and Rescue Department arrived a few minutes later,” Chua Bo Ching, 49, told Bernama here.

Ground floor trader Lee Kian Mun, 44, said the fire, which began at 7.36pm, was believed to have started at the food court on the upper floor and spread rapidly.

“I did not expect the fire to spread so fast because the ventilation is good. I feel for my friends selling clothes, pants, bags and other items whose shops were destroyed in the blaze,” he said.

The ground floor of the Seremban Main Market is where wet goods are sold, while the food court is located on the second floor, where clothes and fruits are sold.

According to a statement from the state Fire and Rescue Department, the Senawang and Seremban 2 Fire and Rescue stations were involved in putting out the blaze.

“The fire involved the upper portion of the market. Until 8.20pm, the fire had destroyed 80 percent of the upper level,” it said.

Until 9.40pm, the firemen were still putting out the flames, and there was no information on the estimated damage to the market or losses incurred by the victims.

Negri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamad Hasan arrived at the market at 10.40pm.

- Bernama