2 minors among 4 dead in Delhi shoe factory blaze

Four labourers, including two minors, were killed and four others wounded after fire broke out in a shoe factory in northwest Delhi's Sultanpuri area on Monday morning. Police has booked factory owner Veeresh Gupta and is questioning him.

Around 50 labourers were locked when the incident took place at 6.40 am at the factory run from A-239 in Raj Park locality.

In January, 17 workers were burnt to death in a blaze at a firecracker packaging unit in north Delhi's Bawana. There, too, the unit's shutter was down and main gate locked from outside.

"I woke up to smoke coming from downstairs. There was a lot of leather and adhesive at the ground floor. Smoke choked us. The entry and the exit were locked from the outside. We had to jump out of the building," said Sham Baris, 20, one of the survivors.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Razi (20), Mohammad Shamu (17), Mahbub Barish (18) and Ayub (17) — all of them natives of UP's Hardoi.

The fire that continued for over three hours could be doused only by 10.10 am. Chief Fire Officer Atul Garg said, "Ground and three upper floors of the building were gutted. We sent 10 fire tenders." In another incident, fire broke out around 11.48 am in Old Delhi's Kucha Mahagani near Chandni Chowk.