A massive fire broke out Sunday in three warehouses containing ballot boxes of Iraq's parliamentary election in downtown capital Baghdad, Xinhua reported.
An Interior Ministry source told Xinhua that the incident took place in the afternoon in electoral commission's warehouses in Gailani neighborhood, which contain ballot boxes of eastern side of Risafa in Baghdad and electronic counting devices.
Huge black smoke rose above the site as the fire extended to three out of six warehouses containing the ballot boxes, while fire engines were extinguishing the fire and civil defense policemen were trying to save some of the ballot boxes.
"The warehouses storing all the ballot boxes from Risafa area are on fire, and all the boxes have burned," Mohammed al-Rubei, member of Baghdad provincial council, told Xinhua.
A few hours later, the fire was under control, as the security forces sealed off the scene and prevented media from entering the warehouses, the interior ministry source said.
Another security force collected the unburned ballot boxes and evacuated them to safe places under tight security measures, the source said.
The warehouses are owned by the Iraqi Trade Ministry, and rented by the electoral commission to store thousands of ballot boxes, the source added.