Chikkaballapur : Three shops were completely gutted in a late-night fire at Kencharlahalli village in Chintamani taluk of Karnataka's Chikkaballapur district, police said.
The fire, suspected to have been caused by a short circuit, engulfed a mobile shop, an electronics shop and a tea shop belonging to Shirish, Shashikumar and Suresh.
Goods worth several lakhs of rupees were reduced to ashes, resulting in heavy financial losses for the shop owners.
Fire and Emergency Services personnel rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze, preventing it from spreading to nearby shops.
Local police visited the scene and are investigating the incident.
Earlier, a massive fire broke out at a paper packaging factory in Shivamogga city's Old Mandli Industrial area on Wednesday, destroying packaging material worth crores of rupees.
More than 25 personnel from the Fire and Emergency Services were deployed to the spot, and firefighting operations were underway for over an hour to bring the blaze under control.
The factory, owned by Mumbai-based businessman Zakir Hajibhai, had been operating for nearly 40 years. Large quantities of paper packaging material stored on the premises were gutted in the fire. The factory employed over 400 workers.
No casualties were reported.