A fresh fire has erupted at South Africa’s parliament building in Cape Town a day after it first went up in flames.
The main assembly chamber was “completely gutted” by the initial blaze, which is thought to have broken out in an old parliament office building before spreading to the National Assembly on Sunday.
Firefighters were still working on “hotspots” of the blaze when further flames erupted, sparking concerns the entire structure could collapse.
More than 70 fire crews were scrambled to tackle the fire, which saw black smoke billowing over the city, but the operation had been scaled back to 20 by Monday morning.
Moloto Mothapo, head of communications for the parliament, tweeted on Monday afternoon: “Unfortunately after almost two days of brave battle with the flames in the National Assembly Building, more fire has just been fanned up.
Firefighters remain at the scene and are continuing with the fight to bring the fire under control.”
It is not yet clear how the fire started again, but Patricia de Lille, minister of public works and infrastructure, said on Sunday that someone had turned off a valve that prevented a fire sprinkler system from functioning.
There have also been reports there was a lack of CCTV to monitor the incident.
