Woman, two children among 14 dead in Kolkata hotel fire

Kolkata, April 30: Fourteen people, including one woman and two children, were killed in the massive fire that broke out at a hotel in the city's Mechuapatti area on Tuesday night, police said.

Thirteen others sustained injuries.

According to a senior officer of Kolkata Police, the deceased include 11 men, of whom eight have been identified so far.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the incident.

"There were 14 fatalities in last night’s fire — a woman, a boy, and a girl among them. Eight of the deceased have been identified," the officer said.

The blaze was reported around 7.30pm at the hotel where there were 88 boarders in the 42 rooms in the building, he added.

Ten fire tenders were pressed into services to douse the blaze. It was finally contained at 3.30AM, an officer of the fire department told PTI.

"The cause of the fire could not be ascertained. Our forensic team will conduct an investigation of the building. It has been cordoned off," the officer said.