Two kids die in godown fire, mob goes on rampage injuring five

Two children were today charred to death when a furniture godown caught fire here, after which irate mob alleging negligence of fire fighters resorted to violence in which five persons, including a fireman and a policeman were injured, police said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has condoled the deaths and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the family members of victims.
The furniture godown owned by one Sunil caught fire this morning in the city in which his 8-year-old son Anshu and employee Dharampal's 5-year-old son Sandeep were charred to death, police said.
It is being alleged that the fire tender which reached the spot did not have enough water and its pipes were also leaking due to which it took time to bring the fire under control causing death of the two children, they said.

Agitated over this, the irate people set the fire tender, a temporary police outpost and two other heavy vehicles ablaze, police said.
When in a bid to control the situation police used tear gas and rubber bullets, the mob "retaliated with heavy stone pelting and chased away police," they said.

District Magistrate Nidhi Kesarwani and SSP Santosh Kumar Singh too made an effort to control the situation, but failed. The DM's car was also damaged by the mob, police said.
The rampage, which continued for nearly four hours, was later controlled by CRPF.
In the clash, Janardan (22) sustained bullet injury while a fire fighter, a policeman named Abhilakh and two others were injured in stone pelting, police said.

Janardan and Abhilakh have been referred to a hospital in Agra and are stated to be in a serious condition, they added.
DIG Aligarh Govind Agarwal said that police pickets have been set up at strategic locations in the city and heavy police force, including CRPF, PAC have been deployed.
Meanwhile, Secretary (Home) Mani Prasad Mishra told reporters in Lucknow that taking note of the incident, the government has suspended Chief Fire Officer (CFO) J N Dohre and fireman Niranjan Prasad for dereliction of duty and not taking prompt action.