India: At Least 17 Killed as Fire Engulfed a Hotel

At least Seventeen people were killed and four others sustained burn injuries when massive fire erupted and engulfed the Arpit Palace Hotel in western New Delhi, while most guests were sleeping.

“We have to check the stability of the structure, check every room,” deputy police commissioner Mandeep Singh Randhawa said. “Most of the victims were sleeping when the fire broke out, engulfing every floor of the five-story hotel but the ground floor”, a fire official said. “Seventeen people are no more, they died because of suffocation, not fire,” said deputy fire chief Virendra Singh.

Officials said hotel guests had tried to escape the fire through the hotel’s narrow corridors, panelled in wood. Some were able to break through the windows of their rooms. Around 35 people were rescued from the hotel and the injured were taken to local hospitals.