A 10-year-old girl was charred to death in a fire that broke out in Kanpur's Parade bazaar on Saturday, police said. Over 50 shops were destroyed in the fire that raged for more than five hours and took 20 fire tenders to douse.
The deceased was identified as Chandni, daughter of the market's security guard. His wife and son also sustained serious burn injuries. The injured were admitted to the Ursula hospital, a fire official told IANS.
"All shops were makeshift shops, made of plastic sheets. It caused fire to spread," he added.
Alleging that somebody had set the shops on fire deliberately, the shopkeepers staged a sit-in with the girl's body which was later sent for a post-mortem after much persuasion by the authorities.