KIGALI - Fire, early Sunday morning, gutted Ndaru Coffee Shop, a lavish city restaurant, leaving it in ruins after a two and a half hour struggle to put out the fire.

According to the security guard who was on duty at the time the fire started, at around 1.30 am,  an electric short circuit may have caused the fire.

"I heard blasts of electric wires from inside the restaurant before the flames became visible,” he said, adding that he immediately called his bosses and the owner of the restaurant.

Speaking to The New Times at the premises, Manzi Ndamukunze, the Director General of the neighbouring Alhalaal Microfinance said that the police fire fighters put out the fire before it could engulf other businesses close to the restaurant.

"When the police fire brigade arrived, the fire was too much for them to immediately contain. So two more fire trucks from RDF and the Civil Aviation Authority, immediately intervened to save the situation,” said Ndamukunze.

The loss incurred was not readily established.

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