Waiter charred to death in hookah bar-cum-restaurant

A waiter was charred to death when a fire broke out in a hookah bar-cum-restaurant on the sixth floor of a multi-storeyed building in Rohini Sector 9 this afternoon, even as locals alleged that it was being run without valid license.

The deceased was identified as Kamal Kumar (24), a resident of Rajapur area here, DCP (Rohini) M N Tiwari said.

Information about the fire was received at 2.30 PM, following which five fire tenders, an ambulance and NDRF personnel were rushed to the spot.

The building was evacuated and its premises cordoned off.

It took two hours to douse the flames, an officer of Delhi Fire Services said.

There were five LPG cylinders in the kitchen and it is suspected that those might have caused the blaze, they said.

While the customers and other restaurant staff managed to escape, Kamal was caught in the fire while he was in the kitchen.

"It will be probed whether the restaurant owner had valid license to serve hookah and other safety measures were in place on the premises," Tiwari said, adding the owner is absconding and a hunt is on.

The FSL team visited the restaurant to examine the exact cause of the incident, police said.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)