ASUNCION – At least two people were killed and seven others injured over the weekend in a fire at a crowded supermarket near the Asuncion bus terminal, a Paraguayan police spokesman said.

The bodies of two men were found after the fire Sunday at the La Bomba supermarket, Asuncion Metropolitan Police Zone 1 chief Eligio Ibarra said.

One of the men “burned to death and the other died from asphyxiation,” Ibarra said.

Paramedics treated the seven injured people, including five taken to the Burn Hospital “with minor injuries and (suffering from) smoke inhalation,” emergency services chief Enrique Bellassai said.

The fire apparently started when a gas cylinder in the supermarket’s restaurant exploded, the fire department said.

The restaurant was packed with people watching the Olimpia-Cerro Porteño soccer match when the fire started.

Cristobal Lezcano, the largest shareholder of the La Bomba supermarket chain, said the fire began in the hardware department and insinuated that it may have been intentionally set.

An Aug. 1, 2004, blaze at the Ycua Bolaños supermarket killed 364 people and injured hundreds of others, making it the worst fire in Paraguay’s history.

The 12-year prison sentence rendered against the owner of the Ycua Bolaños supermarket, Juan Pio Paiva, was overturned last year on appeal.

The prison sentences of several other people in the case have also been annulled or reduced.

The architect who designed and built the Ycua Bolaños shopping mall, Bernardo Ismachowiez, was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for “dangerous construction practices.” EFE