Bengaluru: Around 300 cars, parked outside the ongoing Aero India show in Bengaluru, was gutted on Saturday after dry grass caught fire.

The fire added to the gloom surrounding the biennial airshow, which began on a sad note after two Hawk aircraft, part of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Surya Kiran acrobatics team, crashed, killing one pilot and grounding its entire performance for the first three days of the show that kicked off on Wednesday.

"#AeroShowOpenParkingAreaFire. In all, 300 cars burnt in the fire incident. Fire fully extinguished now. 10 Fire Force and 5 other fire engines fought the fire under the leadership of Chief Fire Officer, West," M.N.Reddi, director-general, police, Fire & Emergency services, Home guards & civil defence and state disaster response force wrote on Twitter.

"Today morning at around 1155hrs an unfortunate incident occurred, wherein fire broke out in one of the parking areas outside the venue of Aero India 2019," the IAF said in a statement.

The IAF deployed rapid action forces and sent one helicopter to assist civil emergency services on the direction of the fire.

The parking lot was outside the Air Force station premises. Though the exact extent of the damage is being ascertained, the police said no one was injured due to the fire. Thick smoke billowed from near the Yelhanka Air Force station on Saturday, bringing back memories of the Surya Kiran crash on Tuesday, when two fighter jets collided while practicing a tricky manoeuvre ahead of the airshow.

"Afternoon air display continued on time. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the fire," the IAF said in its statement.

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