Fire at scaffolding outside Egypt's Grand Museum extinguished: official

CAIRO, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Firefighters put out a blaze at the scaffolding of the under-construction Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near Cairo, with antiquities and workers inside remaining unharmed, said an official on Sunday.

"The staging used in the construction of the museum was on fire for unknown reasons, but firefighters managed to extinguish the fire rapidly," Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities told Xinhua.

The scaffolding is erected around the museum's building, not inside it, Waziri said, adding that the fire grew fierce because the windy weather helped blaze eat the wooden bars of the scaffolding.

"Around 17 fire engines rushed to the museum to put out the fire," he said.

The official said the attorney general ordered an investigation into the cause of the fire.

Located about two km north of the Great Pyramid of Giza, on an area of 491,000 square meters, the GEM's soft opening is scheduled at the end of 2018. The grand opening is expected before the end of 2022.

Thousands of artifacts have been moved to the GEM from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir downtown Cairo and other museums and archeological sites nationwide, including a 3,000-year-old funerary bed and a chariot of famous ancient King Tutankhamun.

The GEM can accommodate 100,000 artifacts: 50,000 will be in constant display and another 50,000 will be stored in modern storehouses. Among the 50,000 in future display, there will be 30,000 that have never been displayed before. Enditem