Mumbai: 60 people rescued in MTNL building fire; rescue ops underway

A huge fire broke out at the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) building in Mumbai's Bandra West here on Monday afternoon with at reportedly 100 people trapped on its terrace. Firefighters have rescued 60 people so far but at least 30 people are still feared trapped as rescue operations continue.

One fireman was taken to Bhabha Bandra hospital after he suffered suffocation.

"Sixty people have been safely rescued with the help of TTL and ALP. And approximately 30 to 35 people are still trapped on the terrace," informed the fire department.

As many as 14 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire, designated as Level Four blaze.

"A fireman has got injured during rescue operations due to suffocation. He has been admitted to Bhabha Bandra hospital and is stable now," said Dr Jadhav.

Kamla Shankar Yadav, an MTNL Employee, said, "My shift was till 4 pm today and when I saw so much smoke billowing out that that it was terrifying. I managed to come out of the building after fire service officials came and divided us into groups of four and started rescue operations."

The incident was reported at around 3 pm. The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) immediately rushed its fire brigades and firefighting personnel to the spot. Robots were also used in firefighting operations and in dousing the fire.

According to the fire department, no injuries or casualties were reported so far.

Rescue operations are still underway.

More details are awaited.