Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is counting the cost of a dramatic fire that ripped through its historic Old Town, destroyed several grand old buildings and left more than 100 people homeless.
Investigators were expecting to gain a clearer picture of the devastation, as firefighters put out the last embers of the weekend inferno in the UN-declared World Heritage site.
"We are talking about the extent of damage running into millions of pounds," said Mr David Mercer, Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade divisional chief.
More than 100 residents spent a second night in emergency accommodations, having been evacuated from their homes soon after the fire was discovered in the lower levels of a seven-storey building on Saturday night.
The fire is thought to have started above La Belle Angele nightclub in Hastie's Close, just off the Cowgate before working its way up through connected premises on South Bridge and Chambers Street.
The battle to quell the blaze was made difficult by the area's medieval patchwork of tightly-packed old buildings housing various premises, accessible from different street levels.
Some 120 firefighters, with backup from other parts of Scotland, were involved at the height of the blaze. No one was killed, and only one injury was reported - a firefighter who suffered a minor knee injury.
Six fire trucks were still at the scene this morning, along with 26 firefighters, working in near-freezing temperatures 36 hours after the fire broke out, a fire spokesman said.
Commuters were warned to face delays as traffic was being diverted away from the vicinity of the gutted area.
La Belle Angele, Gilded Balloon and Loca nightclubs were among the premises that suffered internal collapse, while research and equipment at the University of Edinburgh's informatics faculty was also destroyed.
With a population of 453,000, Edinburgh is Scotland's second biggest city after Glasgow.
AFP