At least 23 people have been killed in a fire at a popular nightclub in the coastal region of Goa, India, local officials say.<\/p>\n
The majority of victims are believed to be staff at the club in Arpora, North Goa, while tourists are also among the dead.<\/p>\n
Police believe a gas cylinder exploded in the club’s kitchen causing the blaze to rip through the venue at midnight on Saturday, local time.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the Goa fire “deeply saddening” in a post on social media.<\/p>\n
“The fire was mainly concentrated around the kitchen area on the ground floor,” said Alok Kumar, Goa’s Director General of Police.<\/p>\n
“The fire occurred around midnight. It has now been brought under control.”<\/p>\n
Most of the bodies were found around the kitchen “suggesting that the victims were employed at the club,” Mr Alok Kumar added.<\/p>\n
Goa’s chief minister Pramod Sawant told journalists three people died from burn injuries, while others died by suffocating.<\/p>\n
He said “three to four” tourists had died but did not provide their ages or nationalities. <\/p>\n
The Indian Express reports the fire broke out at a club called Birch by Romeo Lane at Baga, located at the one of the coastal region’s most popular beaches.<\/p>\n
The area where the fire occurred is lined with similar nightlife hotspots, where tourists and partygoers can be seen pouring out of the bustling clubs.<\/p>\n
A chef who works at a nearby venue told the BBC he knew some of the workers at the Birch club.<\/p>\n
“People from all over the country and also from Nepal work in different clubs in Goa,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I am really worried for some people who I knew at the club. Their phones are off.”<\/p>\n
Rescue efforts were still ongoing in the early hours of Sunday morning. Crews were combing through the charred wreckage to determine the cause of the blaze.<\/p>\n
One of the firefighters at the scene told the BBC they are still identifying the victims and will then notify their families.<\/p>\n
A formal inquiry into the cause of the fire has launched, the chief minister said.<\/p>\n
“Those found responsible will face most stringent action under the law \u2013 any negligence will be dealt with firmly,” Dr Sawant said.<\/p>\n
“I am deeply grieved and offer my heartfelt condolences to all the bereaved families in this hour of unimaginable loss.”<\/p>\n
Goa is former Portuguese colony on the Arabian Sea. Its nightlife, sandy beaches, and resorts attract millions of tourists annually.<\/p>\n
About 5.5 million tourists visited Goa in the first half of the year, government data showed, with 270,000 visiting from abroad.<\/p>\n
India has seen a number of deadly fires at entertainment venues in recent years.<\/p>\n
A fire at a three-storey building killed 17 in the southern city of Hyderabad in May, while a hotel blaze in north-east Kolkata left 15 dead a month earlier.<\/p>\n
Last year, 24 died at an amusement park arcade in the western state of Gujarat after visitors were trapped inside due to the collapse of a temporary structure at the entrance. An official review later found poor safety standards contributed to a higher death toll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 23 people have been killed in a fire at a popular nightclub in the coastal region…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-329514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}