At least 15 people have been killed after a fierce fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata, as several guests jumped out of windows to escape.
Several people were rescued from rooms and roof of the budget hotel, Kolkata police chief Manoj Verma said, after the fire broke out on Tuesday evening.
‘The death toll has risen to 15, including two children and a woman,’ said Verma, adding an investigation had been launched to find out what triggered the blaze.
‘The hotel turned into a gas chamber and it appears that many people suffocated to death.’
Footage shared on social media shows how hotel guests clambered out of windows and onto the rooftop to escape the deadly inferno.
The Rituraj Hotel, which had 88 guests when the fire broke out, is located in a congested business district of central Kolkata.
About a dozen people suffered burn injuries and were undergoing treatment.
Building fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and a routine disregard for safety regulations.
A devastating fire in the Indian city of Kolkata has killed 22 people, including two children
Footage shared on social media showed how hotel guests clambered out of windows and onto the rooftop to escape the deadly inferno
About a dozen people are said to have been injured
Last year, six people were killed in a fire at a hotel in Patna in the eastern state of Bihar.
The Press Trust of India news agency, which filmed images of soaring flames from the Kolkata building, reported that ‘several people were seen trying to escape through the windows and narrow ledges of the building’.
Kolkata’s The Telegraph newspaper reported that at least one person died when he ‘jumped off the terrace trying to escape’ the fire.
Verma said the fire had been tackled and that ‘cooling operations are underway’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to the families of those killed.
‘May the injured recover soon,’ his office said in a statement.
Kolkata, a bustling metropolis of more than 15 million people, is the capital of West Bengal state, which is governed by the opposition Trinamool Congress party.
The horrific fire in India comes after a restaurant blaze in northeastern China killed 22 people and injured three more on Tuesday.
Videos on social media show how flames embattled the building yesterday
A firefighter is seen climbing a window to rescue a guest trapped in the hotel
Building fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment
Firefighters inspect the Rituraj Hotel where a fire brokeout, in Kolkata on April 30, 2025
The cause of the fire is being investigated by police
Onlookers stand in a balcony as they look at the Rituraj Hotel where a fire broke out
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to the families of those killed
ndian firefighters work to extinguish the fire at Ritruaj hotel
The inferno broke out at a restaurant in the Baita District, Liaoyang City, which is around 360 miles northeast of Beijing.
President Xi Jinping said that the blaze had caused ‘significant casualties’ and that the lessons from it were ‘profoundly serious’, Chinese state media reported.
Xi called for ‘every effort to treat the injured, properly handle the aftermath for the deceased and provide support to their families, swiftly determine the cause of the fire, and pursue accountability in accordance with the law,’.
Footage shared online and verified by AFP showed fierce flames engulfing a two-storey restaurant and thick black smoke billowing skyward.
Other authenticated videos published on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, showed paramedics wheeling one victim on a stretcher into an ambulance and several firefighters battling the flames with hoses.
It is not clear what caused the fire to break out, but China’s premier Li Qiang called for a full-scale investigation into the deadly incident.
Deadly fires are relatively common in China due to lax building codes and an often slipshod approach to workplace safety.
