The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation has formed a three-member committee to probe Tuesday evening's fire breakout on the grassy field near the runway of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), which led to the cancellation of all the domestic and international flights to and from the airport for two and half hours.

The probe committee headed by joint secretary of the ministry Lokendra Bahadur Chhettri has Home Ministry under secretary Bal Krishna Panthi and Deputy Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Krishna Bahadur Thapa. The committee has been given three days to submit the finding.

CAAN Director General Triratna Manandhar said the authority had not yet got any clue as to how the fire broke out.

It took more than two hours for six fire brigade vehicles and hundreds of security officials to extinguish the fire on the grassy field on the eastern side of the runway.

There was no human casualty or damage of the properties of the TIA in the fire, but it has raised serious security concerns at the country's only international airport. nepalnews.com