Hotel fire in Delhi, 18 foreign citizens among 21 victims

The dead included people from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Liberia, the broadcaster said.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the victims' nationalities.

Some had jumped from the burning building in Malvia Nagar, South Delhi, to escape the flames, the witnesses said, with residents dragging mattresses from a nearby store to stop their decline.

<x0) Reuters.

Television footage showed two people jumping from a higher floor of the building while it was involved in flames, with smoke coming out.

Locals who helped in the initial rescue said the fire broke out on the ground floor and first floor of the four-story building, blocking them at the highest level.

There's a mattress store here... We took the mattresses from there and put them on the street to help those who were jumping out of the building”, said Wasim Raja, a local resident, for the ANI news agency.

The fire broke out just before 9am and eight firefighters were sent to extinguish the flames, police said in a statement.

The fire was extinguished around noon, a Reuters witness said.

“Through co-ordinated police efforts, fire services and other emergency aides, more than 40 persons have been rescued and transferred to nearby hospitals for medical treatment”, police said.

“With deep grief 21 people have been declared dead in this tragic incident”, she said.

A spokesperson at the State Institute of All Indian Medical Sciences told Reuters that the hospital had accepted 13 patients, two of whom were in critical condition.

“It is said that there was a restaurant operating on the floor of the building... most likely the fire was connected to that restaurant”, local administration official Jitendra Kumar told reporters. /Periscope