DAVAO, Philippines: Firefighters battled a blaze for the second day Sunday at a southern Philippine shopping mall where some two dozen employees are feared to have been trapped in the four-story building, an official said.
It is unclear when firefighters can break into the NCCC Mall, which burned up to late Saturday. Details of the casualties were sketchy.
"The fire hasn't totally been put out,'' Romina Marasigan, spokeswoman of the government's disaster-response agency, said.
President Rodrigo Duterte and Roman Catholic Church officials visited the site late Saturday to meet with relatives of the trapped office employees and asked them to pray.
The mall's marketing manager, Janna Abdullah Mutalib, said the fire started Saturday morning at the third floor where clothes, appliances and furniture are sold, after a storm hit Davao and flooded parts of the city.
Duterte served as Davao mayor for many years before being elected to the presidency last year.