Four children were among 27 people killed when a fire in India ripped through a crowded amusement park, a local official said yesterday, as rescuers scoured the site the morning after the blaze.
Survivors reported having to kick down doors and leap out of windows to escape the inferno that swept through a center packed full of young people enjoying games such as bowling, Indian media reported.
Lines of bodies draped in white cloths were laid out before being taken away from the center in Rajkot, a city in the western state of Gujarat.
Photo: AP
The four children reported dead were all under the age of 12, police said.
The local Rajkot government said in a statement that forensic officers were “collecting DNA samples from the remains,” as “the bodies have been charred beyond recognition.”
Outside the still-smoldering wreckage of the park, the mother and sister of 20-year-old Asha Kathad — who had worked in the center — waited for news.
They held up a photograph of Asha on a mobile phone.
“We don’t have any information about her,” Asha’s mother told local reporters, too distraught to give her full name as she wept.
More than 300 people were enjoying the summer holiday weekend in the two-story structure at the TRP amusement and theme park when the blaze broke out on Saturday evening, Rajkot fire officer Ilesh Kher told reporters on the night of the fire.
“People got trapped as a temporary structure at the facility collapsed near the entrance, making it difficult for the people to come out,” he said.
The flames spread rapidly because of the structure’s flammable material, he added.
“The toll in the fire incident is now 27,” top local government official Prabhav Joshi said. “Police have arrested two persons and the investigation is continuing.”
Survivors recalled their horror as they struggled to flee the fire.
“We were bowling when two staff members told us there was a fire on the ground floor and we should leave. The area was soon full of smoke,” Pruthvirajsinh Jadeja told the Indian Express newspaper.
“We tried to escape from the rear door, but couldn’t. I saw a beam of light coming from outside. I kicked down the tin sheet and five of us made our way out, jumping from the first floor,” he said.
Also on Saturday night, a fire in India’s capital ripped through a children’s hospital, killing six newborns, with passersby charging into the burning building to pull out the other newborns from the ward.
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