A major fire on Monday devastated a historic mosque in Durban, a South African port on the shores of the Indian Ocean, rescue services and Muslim officials said. The blaze at Juma Mosque, one of the largest in the southern hemisphere, also damaged three neighboring buildings in the city's central business district, AFP told AFP. Rescue Service spokesperson Robert Mckenzie.
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Firefighters managed to control the blaze within two hours, before it reached the prayer room on the ground floor. Videos posted on Twitter showed the crowd watching the flames raging on the upper floor of the building. The cause of the incident has not yet been clarified, but according to the president of the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) Faisal Suliman, the fire would have started in one of the seven staff quarters above the mosque and could have been triggered by a short circuit.
"We assume that (the fire) was accidental, not criminal," he told AFP. Mosque employees and their families were all evacuated before the fire escalated and no one was injured. The mosque, built 139 years ago, and located on Gray Street, is one of Durban's remarkable landmarks and a popular place of worship that can accommodate 7,000 worshipers for prayer.
It has been visited by celebrities including Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first president elected after the apartheid regime ended, British musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, and the former champion of boxing Mohamed Ali, both converts to Islam.
