Fire at shelter home near Kashmiri Gate brought under control

The fire broke out in a shelter home near Kashmiri Gate on Saturday but was doused before any damage and no causalities were reported so far, according to the Fire Department.

"The fire has been brought under control and so far no casualty has been reported," Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Services said.

According to officials the blaze that was reported at 6 pm and five fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

According to the police, some vagabonds pelted stones at police and set fire to the shelter home in connection with an incident that took place on Friday.

The homeless who were served food by the Delhi government during the ongoing national lockdown were asked to observer social distancing but they did not obey, police said. They said that yesterday a civil defence volunteer allegedly hit one of them with a lathi for not maintaining social distancing while queuing up to get food. After that a few of them jumped into the canal, police said.

Some of them returned but claimed that one of their companions was still in the canal. Divers were called in and search operation was conducted but nothing was found, police said.

"Today they fetched one dead body and claimed it to be of their fellow vagabonds. When police came to take the body they pelted stones on the PCR and later torched the 'Rain Basera'," police said.

Police have taken the body into the custody and are waiting for identification.