KYOTO -- A fire broke out at a restaurant in the popular dining district "Ponto-cho" here on the evening of July 5, sending two people to the hospital with minor injuries.

An employee at restaurant "Akaneya Junshinken" in Kyoto's Nakagyo Ward called a local fire department at around 7:10 p.m. on July 5, saying that a kitchen on the restaurant's first floor had caught fire. According to the Kyoto City Fire Department, the fire burned approximately 135 square meters including the two-story wooden restaurant building and structures on the south side of the restaurant. It was put out some four hours later.

A 23-year-old male restaurant employee, who sustained glass cuts on his right hand, and a 38-year-old woman who was dining in a different establishment were sent to the hospital.

The Ponto-cho alley located along the Kamogawa River that runs through central Kyoto is one of the most popular tourist spots in the city. Numerous teahouses and restaurants are packed in the narrow alley that stretches about 500 meters south-to-north.

Approximately 50 meters north of the restaurant that caught fire is the Pontocho Kaburenjo theater, which was built in the 1920s and is used for geisha and apprentice geisha performances. In summer, restaurants set up decks along the river, and many customers were dining in "yukata," a casual summer kimono, at the time the fire broke out.