India, Feb. 27 -- Firefighters armed with 30 fire tenders battled for over 30 hours to control a massive blaze that erupted at Surat's Shiv Shakti textile market on Wednesday, destroying nearly half of the stores. No casualties have been reported so far, police said.

This was the second time in 24 hours that flames erupted at the market. The initial fire broke out on Tuesday morning in the market's basement, where large quantities of textile stock were stored. Firefighters contained it after several hours, but the fire reignited on Wednesday morning, quickly spreading through the four-story building.

"Approximately 45 lakh litres of water were used to douse the flames that broke out in the market," said an official from the fire departm...