A major fire ripped through South Africa's Parliament complex, gutting offices and causing some ceilings in the building that houses the national legislature to collapse. No injuries have been reported.
The Associated Press
Visiting the scene, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said a person was “being held and is being questioned” by police in connection with the blaze. Police later confirmed a 51-year-old man had been detained. Officials said the fire started in the Old Assembly building, which was built in 1884 and originally housed the South African Parliament but is now used for offices. It spread to the newer National Assembly building, built in the 1980s, which is where the Parliament now sits.
While the Old Assembly building was closely connected to South Africa's colonial and apartheid history, the National Assembly building was where former President F.W. de Klerk stood up at the opening of Parliament in 1990 and announced he was freeing Nelson Mandela from prison and effectively ending the apartheid system of white minority rule. The news electrified the country and reverberated around the world.
Parliament speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula cautioned against speculation that it was a deliberate attack on South Africa's seat of democracy. South Africans viewed the fire as a double blow on the first two days of the new year, after saying farewell to Tutu and then seeing their Parliament burn.
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