YEREVAN. – We had 18 stalls and 4 storages in the area where the fire broke out. Vardan Manukyan, section chief at Surmalu shopping market in Yerevan, told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"At this moment, we have given everyone spaces for free to move their remaining goods there; then we will decide what to do. There is a council; the council will decide, say [what to do next]. I cannot say what damage they suffered. People had both big, small storages [there]," he said.

"There were mostly stationery and toys at the stalls [that were affected by the fire]," added the Surmalu official.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, at 3:07am Tuesday, the national crisis management center of received a call was from a Yerevan cannery that there was a big fire.

It turned out that the fire had broken out at the central building—about 2,000 square meters—of Surmalu shopping market.

The fire was contained at 6:24am.

But toy and household items’ stalls—along with property—were burned down.

Minister of Emergency Situations Andranik Piloyan was at the scene.