CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Firefighters battled a major blaze at South Africa’s Parliament complex on Sunday that sent a dark plume of smoke and flames into the air above the center of Cape Town and caused some ceilings of the building that houses the national legislature to collapse. Some of them were lifted into the Cape Town skyline on a crane to spray water on the blaze from above. The precinct has three main sections, the original Parliament building completed in the late 1800s and two newer parts built in the 20th century. The top part of the bright white National Assembly building had been burned black as smoke billowed out its roof. A huge wildfire on the slopes Cape Town’s famed Table Mountain last year spread to buildings below and destroyed part of a historic library at the University of Cape Town.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 02, 2022 07:26 UTC