Authorities appeal for witnesses after blaze damages buildings at city’s main fresh produce market, as operations resume
Police in Stuttgart have launched a criminal investigation and called for potential witnesses after a large fire damaged buildings at the city’s fresh produce wholesale market on Friday evening.
The cause of the incident, which is understood to have directly affected two warehouses towards the rear of the site close to the River Neckar, remains unclear.
According to the police, no one was injured. Thomas Lehmann, managing director of Märkte Stuttgart, told local magazine Echt Stuttgart that the fire had not affected the entire wholesale market.
“It is by no means the entire wholesale market, as has been portrayed in many newspapers and media outlets,” he said.
In fact, he noted, large parts of the market were spared, with some areas able to resume operations as early as Saturday.
“In cooperation with the relevant authorities, we can announce that operations are now fully restored – with the exception of the area directly affected by the fire,” the company said later in a statement.
Stuttgart wholesale market is reckoned to be one the most important fresh produce centres in south-west Germany and one of the largest of its kind in the country.
It provides fresh food, especially fruit and vegetables, to an estimated 12mn people within a 300km radius.
More than a hundred import and wholesale companies, over 80 regional producers of fruit and vegetables, and more than 45 flower sellers and gardeners from Stuttgart and the surrounding area sell their products at the market.
