A large Chinese market caught fire in the Kemerovo region of central Siberia in Russia at around 7 pm (local time) on Tuesday.

The blaze quickly destroyed an area of about 500,000 square metres, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.

One hundred Chinese people work there, but no one was injured, as all of the staff were off work when the fire broke out, according to the Chinese Embassy in Russia which quoted the local media yesterday.

According to the local media, the fire caused a loss of about US$7,000.

It took one hour to bring the blaze under control, the local media also reported.

"The cause of the fire is remains under investigation," a source from the Chinese Embassy told China Daily.

Source: Xinhua