7 killed, several injured in hotel fire in West Bengal's Tarapith

At least seven people were killed and several others critically injured in a fire at a hotel in West Bengal's Birbhum district early on Monday, police said.

Many of the guests were pilgrims who had come to the temple town of Tarapith to offer prayers on the last Monday of the holy month of Shravan. The famous Kali temple here has a shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva.

The fire erupted around 4.30 am on the ground floor of the four-storey hotel, when most of the guests were asleep, they said.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot, and they brought the blaze under control.

The injured were taken to the Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital.

Officials said some of them suffered burn injuries, while others fell ill due to asphyxiation.

Sources in the hospital initially said that five people had died in the blaze. However, police later revised the toll to seven.

"The death toll is seven now," a senior official said.

Hotel officials claimed the fire was caused by a short circuit.

According to them, the fire started near the reception of the hotel after an electrical component of the power supply system caught fire. However, the exact cause of the blaze is yet to be established.

The fire spread rapidly through decorative and fibre materials inside the hotel. Smoke billowed to the upper floors and trapped several guests in their rooms.

A woman from Kolkata, who managed to escape the blaze, recalled the panic inside the hotel. "Suddenly, the entire hotel was engulfed in smoke. We could not breathe, and it was hard to find an escape route," she said.

Another guest, Tapanjyoti Mondal, said he was trapped in his room with his wife and two children for nearly 45 minutes. "We could not come out of the door because of the blaze. Since the room had no window, they escaped through an opening near the bathroom ceiling," he said.

Mondal's mother was unconscious while his sister suffered injuries in the incident.