NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people were killed and more than 20 others sustained burn injuries in a major fire that gutted a busy paper and plastic market in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata in the wee hours of Wednesday, a senior police official said.
"The fire broke out at Surya Sen market around 3.30 a.m. So far, seven dead bodies have been brought out of the market by rescuers. The death toll may go up. All the injured have been rushed to nearby hospitals where the condition of some are said to be critical," he said, on condition of anonymity.
Though more than 30 fire tenders have managed to bring the inferno under control after battling for nearly five hours, many people are still feared trapped inside the six storeyed congested market as local TV channels showed footage of the rescuers trying to get them out and the smoke billowing out of the market.
Those who were killed and got trapped inside the market slept there, according to the channels.
Meanwhile the Fire Minister of the eastern state of West Bengal, Javed Khan, told TV channels that the market at the heart of Kolkata was "illegal" and the civic authorities had already served the shop keepers with eviction notice. He said that a probe has been ordered into the incident.
Similar fires have gutted a number of markets in the city over the past decade.
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