New Delhi – A fire has torn a hotel in the city of Kolkata in eastern India, killing at least 14 people, police announced on Wednesday. The senior police official Manoj Kumar Verma told journalists that the fire had broken out on Tuesday evening at the Rituraj hotel in the center of Kolkata and was sprayed after an effort that took six fire trucks. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
Photos and videos transported in the Indian media have shown that people trying to escape through the windows and narrow edges of the building.
The Kolkata Telegraph newspaper reported that at least one person died when he jumped from a balcony trying to escape.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X that he was “anxious” by the loss of lives in the fire.
SAHIBA CHAWDHARY / REUTERS
The fires are common in India, where manufacturers and residents often flout construction laws and safety codes. Activists say that manufacturers have often reduced security corners to save costs and accused the civic authorities of negligence and apathy.
In 2022, at least 27 people were killed when a massive fire torn a four -story commercial building in New Delhi.
