A fire that started from the house of one Uddhav Prasad Timalsina at Samaj Kalyan Chowk in ward 4 of Panchkhal Municipality in Kavrepalanchowk district, destroyed nine shops on Friday morning.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Shrestha, information officer of the district police office, an electrical short circuit has been suspected as the cause of the fire.

Among the nine shops, four were completely destroyed and others suffered minor damage. It took the security personnel nearly an hour to control the fire.

Full details of the damage caused by the fire have yet to come, said Shrestha.