A fire ripped through pet shops next to Bangkok's famed Chatuchak market and killed more than a thousand animals, including many exotic species.Animal rights organisations criticised the market for selling live animals, urging stricter regulations and enforcement of animal rights.
Some 118 shops were burnt down and an initial inspection suggests that the fire was caused by an electrical fault, police Superintendent Phuwadon Ounpho said. A medic treated a chicken near the smouldering ruins of one row of shops, according to a Reuters witness."I'm shocked. I feel like crying, but there are no tears," Siamese fighting fish shop owner Suwannee Sangdee, 49, who fears her small establishment has been left in ruins and all her precious fish dead.A shop employee, 36-year-old Meecha had to jump out of the window to escape from the fire, according to Thai media website Thaiger.
In a statement, Edwin Wiek, the NGO's director described the Chatuchak market as a "shame on Bangkok".