At least 15 individuals died in a devastating resort hearth in Kolkata, police mentioned Wednesday, as panicked friends had been seen escaping by means of home windows and onto the rooftop, based on police.
Several individuals had been rescued from rooms and the roof of the finances resort, Kolkata police chief Manoj Verma informed AFP after the hearth broke out on Tuesday night.
“The hotel turned into a gas chamber and it appears that many people suffocated to death,” mentioned Verma, including an investigation had been launched to find out the reason for the blaze.
The Rituraj Hotel, which had 88 friends when the hearth broke out, is situated in a congested business district of central Kolkata.
About a dozen individuals had been burned and had been present process remedy.
A resort employee informed AFP that the hearth broke out on the primary flooring of the six-storey constructing, the place a bar was being constructed and the place building work had bricked up the home windows.
Building fires are widespread in India on account of a scarcity of firefighting tools and a routine disregard for security rules.
Eyewitness Nanda Mondal, who runs a building firm, mentioned he noticed plastic panels overlaying the constructing that appeared to have “fuelled the fire.”
“A man died after he tried to climb down a rainwater pipe,” mentioned Mondal, 64.
‘Negligence’
The Press Trust of India news company, which filmed photographs of hovering flames from the Kolkata constructing, reported that “several people were seen trying to escape through the windows and narrow ledges of the building.”
Kolkata’s The Telegraph newspaper reported that a minimum of one individual died when he “jumped off the terrace trying to escape” the hearth.
Verma mentioned the hearth had been tackled and that “cooling operations are underway.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi supplied his condolences to the households of these killed.
“May the injured recover soon,” his workplace mentioned in an announcement.
Kolkata, a bustling metropolis of greater than 15 million individuals, is the capital of West Bengal state, which is ruled by the opposition Trinamool Congress occasion.
Sajal Ghosh, a metropolis councillor who belongs to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party – which is in energy nationally – mentioned the hearth appeared to have been a results of “negligence.”
“It has also raised fresh questions about illegal constructions and safety standards in poorly regulated budget hotels in the city,” he mentioned.
Source: www.dailysabah.com