A huge fire destroyed Managua's landmark
Oriental Market, wiping out 1,500 vendor stalls and causing an
estimated 100 million dollars in damage, local media reported early
Saturday. The conflagration raged Friday for 11 hours,
destroying most of the sprawling Mercado Oriental, reputedly Central
America's largest market hall. No injuries were reported.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega promised merchants that the market
hall would be rebuilt. The building had been the only one of Managua's
three main markets to survive the capital's devastating 1972
earthquake.
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