Managua, Nicaragua - 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.
