Hyderabad, March 17 (IANS) Six people were killed in a huge fire that broke out in a multi-storey building in Secunderabad here on Thursday night, officials said.
The deceased include four women. Seven others were rescued by fire service personnel.
Hyderabad District Collector Amoy Kumar said the victims died of suffocation due to the smoke.
The deceased, all stated to be in their 20s, succumbed at Gandhi Hospital. They hailed from Warangal, Mahabubabad, and Khammam districts and were said to be employees of a company operating out of the building.
After battling for four hours, fire fighting personnel controlled the fire which started from the third floor of Swapnalok Complex and spread to the upper floors of the eight-storey building, which houses offices.
Officials said the rescue work was still on as the smoke has not yet cleared.
Ten fire tenders rushed to the scene and were engaged in the fire-fighting operation.
Huge flames leaping out of the building, causing panic among people in the area. Police vacated residents staying in adjoining buildings.
According to locals, the fire broke out between 7.30 and 8 p.m. The cause of the fire was not known.
State minister T. Srinivas Yadav rushed to the spot and was monitoring rescue and relief work.
This is the second major fire accident in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad, in less than two months.
Three persons were killed in a huge fire at a multi-storey commercial complex on January 28. The building was completely gutted in the fire and it was later demolished by the authorities as the structure had become weak.
Accused Sahil Gehlot was arrested after the body of a woman, a resident of Haryana's Jhajjar, was found inside a fridge at a dhaba, owned by him, on the outskirts of village Mitraon in Delhi. As per sources, the murder was committed near the Kashmiri Gate area and Gehlot then drove with the dead body all the way to his dhaba - a distance of around 36 km.
A Turkish Airlines flight took off from Delhi carrying material donated by the Indians on Monday. India has been running 'Operation Dost' in Turkey and Syria, ever since the countries were hit by the calamity.
At his weekly press briefing here, Gill said the police have recovered 529.53 kg heroin from the state after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas. Additionally, 147.5 kg heroin was recovered by the police from seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra, taking the total effective recovery of heroin to 677.03 kg in seven months, he said.
In a statement here, SAD General Secretary Parambans Singh Romana said the truth about the Delhi model of school education had been "exposed" yet again with the national survey on Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) showing that Delhi had the worst PTR next to only Bihar in the country.
The police said that a reward of Rs 25,000 was also declared for any information leading to his arrest. The accused has been identified as Salman alias Suleman, a resident of Jahangirpuri.
On February 7, the court took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police against Poonawala and posted the matter for its scrutiny on February 21. On January 24, the police had filed the charge sheet in the case which contains over 6,000 pages and the court had extended Poonawala's custody for 14 days.
