FIRE destroyed the Marshall Islands Nitijela (parliament building) just after midnight on Monday.
Firefighters battled the blaze without success early into Tuesday morning.
“Sometime around midnight or shortly after this morning, the parliament building in Majuro caught on fire, started burning,” RNZ Pacific’s correspondent in the Marshall Islands Giff Johnson said.
The parliament chamber and offices, library, and all the archives were destroyed, including national legislature records.
“The building is no longer usable, and already, alternative plans are being talked about, about where they’re going to hold parliament, because parliament is actually in session right now,’’ Johnson told RNZ.
“Fortunately, the fire started late overnight so there was no indication that anybody was harmed.”