A fire at a suspected illegal garment factory near the Indian capital early yesterday morning killed 13 people and injured several others, officials said.
The workers were sleeping in the cramped leather factory, which was in a residential building on the edge of New Delhi, when the blaze broke out, likely caused by a short circuit.
“The fire broke out at a factory in a residential area of Sahibabad around 4:30am in the morning. Thirteen people who were sleeping there have died and another two or three people are getting treated at the hospital,” local police spokesman Bhagwat Singh said.
Local fire officer Abbas Hussain said that two people were rescued after they woke up soon after the fire started.
“The two of them woke up by chance and say they screamed for others to wake up while running toward the terrace, but others did not wake up, perhaps it was already too late,” Hussain said.
He said that the factory was most likely illegal.
“From what we see, there was nothing proper and the factory must surely not have been a legal one, but we can say for sure only after a proper investigation,” he said.
India has a poor record on workplace safety and deadly accidents are commonplace.
Eight workers were killed last month in a huge explosion at a fireworks factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, while a massive blaze at a firecracker factory in Madhya Pradesh killed 15 people in May 2014.
A fire at a factory in New Delhi where leather bags were being stitched killed six workers in November 2013. Some of the victims were trapped inside the building and were burned beyond recognition.
South Asia’s lucrative garment industry has an alarming safety record, with watchdogs saying safety rules are routinely flouted.
In September, a huge fire triggered by a boiler explosion at a packaging factory just north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka left 25 people dead.
In November 2012, at least 111 workers were killed when a fire engulfed a nine-story garment factory outside Dhaka.
The accident was followed by an even bigger disaster six months later when, 1,138 people died after another clothing factory complex collapsed.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese