At least twenty-one shops were gutted in a fire at Merung Bazar under Dighinala upazila of Khagrachari district early Wednesday.

The fire originated from a shop around 3:30am and soon engulfed the adjacent shops, said official of Khagrachari Fire Service and Civil Defense Md Rubel.

Being informed, a firefighting unit rushed to the spot and doused the blaze after one hour.

The affected shop owners initially claimed a loss of Tk 1.5 crore in the incident.

However, no causalities were reported yet.