Makkah hotel blaze extinguished

Firefighters mounted on cranes train their hoses at the upper floors of the fire-stricken hotel in Makkah on Sunday. (SPA)

Burnt palm are visible amid the smoke as firefighters battle the blaze. (SPA)

A firefighter battles the blaze from atop a crane. (SPA)

Blaze engulfs the eastern facade of the hotel. (SPA)

MAKKAH: Civil Defense firefighters managed to extinguish a fire that hit a 10-story hotel in Makkah’s Azaziya neighborhood on Sunday.
Col. Saeed Sarhan, Civil Defense spokesman for Makkah region, said there were no injuries or loss of life. He said the hotel had been evacuated before the fire spread.
Sarhan said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that palm trees outside the hotel caught fire and flames from the fronds rapidly reached the building's upper floors.
it took hours to extinguish the ferocious fire, said the statement, without naming the hotel.
The Azaziya neighborhood is home to many three-star hotels and is not in the vicinity of the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site where millions of pilgrims congregate year-round.

(Additional input from Reuters)