A fire has destroyed much of Shuri Castle, a World Heritage site on Japan's southern island of Okinawa, with its main hall reduced to a skeleton.<br /><br />Television footage showed firefighters still battling flames at the multi-structured, wooden castle this morning. Emergency responders received the first call about the fire around 2.47am (1.47am in Malaysia), public broadcaster NHK said<br /><br />A popular tourist attraction, Shuri was built more than 500 years ago as the royal castle of the Ryukyu Kingdom.<br /><br />The fire tore through the castle in the middle of its annual mid-autumn festival. It had been scheduled to be included as a stop on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic torch relay route.<br /><br />(Reuters)
