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Delhi office fire: Dozens killed as fire sweeps through building | |
(about 16 hours later) | |
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Drone footage shows the extent of the damage to the office building in the west of Delhi | |
At least 27 people have been killed and others are missing after a fire swept through a four-storey office building in Delhi. | |
More than 70 people were inside when the fire started and witnesses said some jumped out of windows to escape. | |
Women made up the majority of the office's workers. The BBC found distraught family members waiting outside a local hospital for news. | |
A short circuit is thought to have started the fire. | A short circuit is thought to have started the fire. |
The owners of a CCTV manufacturing company which was housed in the building have been arrested in connection with the incident, according to authorities. | |
One of the women missing is 19-year-old Pooja, who is her family's main bread winner. | |
At the Sanjay Ghandi Memorial Hospital in western Delhi, her 14-year-old sister Moni told the BBC her and her mother had run to the hospital as soon as they had heard about the fire. | |
"She had gone to office at nine in the morning. She worked as data entry operator. She could not take her phone, so, she could not give us a call." | |
Among those missing is Pooja, 19 | |
Women's shoes lie outside the charred building | |
Her mother stood completely silent next to her younger daughter, unable to speak. Moni asked how her family will survive without her sister if she is not found alive. | |
Another woman waiting at the hospital, Sunita, said her 20-year-old daughter Sonam was missing. | |
Bursting into tears, she said that she has searched everywhere for her daughter - who worked on the building's second floor, where most of the body's were reportedly found - but was also unable to find out what had happened to her. | |
"When the building caught fire, there was no door to escape," she said. "How could my daughter save herself? | |
Offering his condolences, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised 200,000 rupees (£2,118; $2,580) to next-of-kin in compensation for each death. | |
Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that DNA tests would be used to identify the bodies, which had been "charred beyond recognition", the Hindustani Times reported. | |
A local official, Jogi Ram Jain, said preliminary reports suggested a short circuit had caused the fire and that the building did not have proper fire safety certification. |