Kolkata: A hard fire torn through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata that killed at least 15 people, police said Wednesday, with some climbing out of windows and on the roof to escape.
More people were rescued from rooms and taken by the budget, Kolkata Police Chief Manoj Verma told AFP After the fire broke out on Tuesday night.
“The hotel turned into a gas chamber and it seems that many people had suffocated to death,” Verma said, adding that a study had been launched to determine the cause of the fire.
Rituraj Hotel, which had 88 guests when the fire broke out, is in an overloaded business district in central kolkata.
Around a dozen people were burned and underwent treatment.
Told a hotel worker AFP That the fire broke out on the first floor of the six-storey building, where a bar was built and where the construction work had walled the windows.
Building fires is common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and a routine ignoring security regulations.
Eyewitness Nanda Mondal, who runs a construction company, said he saw plastic panels covering the building that seemed to have “burned the fire”.
“A man died after he tried to climb down a rainwater pipe,” said Mondal, 64.
‘Negligence’
The Press Trust of India News Agency, filming images of sky -high flames from the Kolkata building, reported that “more people were seen attempting to escape through the windows and narrow rates in the building”.
Kolkata’s The telegraph The newspaper reported that at least one person died when he “jumped out of the terrace and tried to escape” the fire.
Verma said the fire had been tackled and that “cooling operations are underway”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolance to the families to those killed.
“May the wounded soon recover,” his office said in a statement.
Kolkata, a busy metropolis of more than 15 million people, is the capital of West Bengal State, which is governed by the opposition Trinamool Congress Party.
Sajal Ghosh, a city council leader who belongs to Modis Bharatiya Janata – Party – who is in power nationally – said the fire seemed to have been a result of “negligence”.
“It has also raised fresh questions about illegal constructions and security standards on poorly regulated budget hotels in the city,” he said.
