By Aref Yusuf

ERBIL, Iraq

Hundreds of second-hand shops caught fire Thursday in the city of Erbil, the administrative capital of northern Iraq’s Kurdish region.

The blaze erupted in the early hours of Thursday morning in a commercial district east of Erbil’s city center, leaving hundreds of local shops in flames.

Iraqi civil-defense teams, backed by helicopters, soon arrived at the scene to extinguish the fire.

No casualties have been reported, while material damage caused by the blaze has yet to be assessed.

Although the cause of the fire remains unknown, local authorities usually attribute such conflagrations to electrical short circuits.