The central pavilion of the Shuri castle of Okinawa (southwest of the archipelago), declared a world heritage site, burned to the ground in a fire that was declared on Thursday and also affected other buildings on the premises.
The fire department of the city of Naha, on the island of Okinawa, was alerted at 2:40 local time (5:40 GMT on Wednesday) that smoke was coming out of the complex.
Up to the site, one s 30 fire trucks were moved to fight the flames, which are still active and have consumed up to 4,200 square meters of the site so far, according to data collected by the Japanese public network NHK.
There were no reports of injuries in the fire, whose causes are being investigated and that apparently arose near the central pavilion of the castle, although about 30 people were temporarily evacuated.
In addition to the central building, the north and south pavilions were also grazing, and several doors continued to burn six hours after the fire was declared, according to authorities.
The castle was originally built at the end of the 14th century, is an important tourist destination in the region and was declared a national treasure in 1933.
The palace was destroyed in World War II, during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, but in 1992 the central pavilion was rebuilt and, after this, the rest of the premises of the enclosure, which was reopened as a national park.
In 2000, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) declared Shuri Castle a world heritage within the nine places, ruins and monuments included in the properties related to the kingdom of Ryukyu , prior to the integration of the Okinawa Islands in Japan (which occurred in the 19th century).
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