YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. At least 17 people have been killed in a fire that broke out in the Arpit Palace hotel in central Delhi, the local media reported.

Reuters reports frequent raids by civic authorities to enforce building codes, fire safety measures and evacuation procedures have failed to curb violations in a rapidly expanding city of more than 18 million people.

“Seventeen people are no more, they died because of suffocation, not fire,” said deputy fire chief Virendra Singh, adding that 35 people had been rescued.

Most of the victims were sleeping when the fire broke out, believed to have been caused by a short circuit, media said.

The dead included a woman and a child who had tried to escape by jumping from a fifth-floor window of the 65-room hotel in the shopping district of Karol Bagh, some of which had been booked by a wedding party.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan