At least 43 die in Delhi factory fire

At least 43 people have died in a factory fire in India’s capital New Delhi, with the toll expected to rise, police said.

The blaze broke out in the early hours in the city’s old quarter, whose narrow and congested lanes are lined with many small manufacturing and storage units.

“We have since rescued at least 50 people,” New Delhi deputy chief fire officer Sunil Choudhary said.

They were “labourers and factory workers sleeping inside this four- or five-storey building,” he said, adding that the fire had been extinguished but rescue operations were ongoing.

A senior Delhi police official said eight or nine people had been carried out later, bringing the overall number rescued to at least 58.

Fire officials said it was very difficult to access the dark, poorly lit premises in the commercial hub of Sadar Bazar.

Local news channels showed footage of firemen carrying people out of the narrow lanes to nearby emergency vehicles.

The building was filled with school bags and packing material, fire officials said, but cautioned that they were still unsure about the cause of the blaze.

Deputy police commissioner of Delhi’s north district, Monika Bhardwaj, said the death toll had jumped to 43, with 16 others still admitted at local hospitals.

“The fire department has completed the rescue work. There are no more bodies at the site.

“We don’t yet know the cause of fire but know that it was aggravated because of plastic packing pouches, bags and other such material there,” Bhardwaj said.

“Most who died were sleeping when the fire broke out and died due to asphyxiation,” Sadar Bazar’s assistant commissioner of police said.

Many factories and small manufacturing units in big Indian cities are often located in old, cramped quarters of the cities, where the cost of land is relatively cheaper.

Such units often also serve as sleeping quarters for poor, mostly migrant labourers and workers, who manage to save money by sleeping overnight at their workplaces.