Firecracker blaze guts Indian market

A fire in a firecracker market in India has caused a swathe of destruction in the most dramatic way possible.

About 200 shops and stalls were reduced to ashes last week when the fire set off a chain reaction of explosions in the Aurangpura market, the Times of India reports.

Video shows awed crowds standing around to film the massive inferno as smoke billows into the sky and firecrackers explode like machine gun fire.

Miraculously, no-one was killed in the blaze, with the market’s hundreds of customers all managing to flee to safety.

District collector Nidhi Pandye told the Times of India there would be an inquiry into how the fire started.