Reuters, by Adnan Abidi and Saurabh Sharma: At least 21 people, including 12 foreign nationals, were killed in a fire at a hotel in Delhi on Wednesday, police said, in one of the worst such incidents in the national capital since 2022.
A police statement did not mention the nationalities of the foreigners who died. Broadcaster CNN-News18 earlier reported that they included people from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique and Liberia.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the nationalities of the victims.
Several people had jumped out of the burning building in South Delhi’s Malviya Nagar to escape the flames, witnesses said, with residents dragging mattresses from a nearby store to try to break their fall.
“People spread mattresses, and a woman from the third floor jumped on it with a little kid,” witness Sher Khan said.
Television footage showed two people jumping from a higher floor of the building as it was engulfed in flames, with smoke billowing out.
Local people who helped in the initial rescue said the fire broke out on the ground and first floors of the four-storey building, trapping those on higher floors.
“There is a mattress shop here… We took the mattresses from there and laid them on the road to help those who were jumping out of the building,” Wasim Raja, a local resident, told news agency ANI.
FIRE MAY HAVE STARTED IN RESTAURANT
The fire broke out a little before 9 a.m. (0330 GMT), and eight fire tenders were dispatched to douse the blaze, police said in a statement.
The fire was extinguished around midday, a Reuters witness said.
Through the coordinated efforts of police, fire services, and other emergency responders, a total of 49 persons were admitted to various hospitals for medical treatment, police said, adding that eight of the injured were discharged after receiving treatment.
“It is with profound sorrow that 21 persons have been declared dead in this tragic incident,” it said.
A spokesperson at the state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences said the hospital had received 13 patients, two of whom were critical.
“There was reportedly a restaurant operating on the ground floor of the building… it is most likely that the fire was connected to that restaurant,” local administration official Jitendra Kumar told reporters.
A case has been registered in the matter and an investigation is ongoing in which the owner of the building, Lavkesh Bajaj, has been detained, police said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences for the loss of lives in a post on X. “Authorities are providing all possible assistance to those affected,” he said.
Prophetic Link:
“The Lord is coming speedily, yet notwithstanding His professed people read the signs of the times—of famines, of thousands being swept away by earthquakes and floods, by fire, by calamities by sea and land, by plagues, by war and bloodshed—the love of self so deadens spiritual senses, that the day of the Lord will come upon them as a thief in the night, and He declares, ‘They shall not escape.’ 1 Thessalonians 5:3.” Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 12 (1897), par. 11
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