AHMEDABAD – At least 15 students died Friday in a fire in a building in India housing a college, officials said, with images on television and social media showing people jumping to escape the blaze.
“The students lost their life both because of the fire and jumping out of the building,” Deepak Sapthaley, a fire official in the western city of Surat, told AFP.
Ten of them died from the jump and five from the fire, with up to 20 being treated in hospital, he said.
The images showed blazing orange flames and black smoke billowing out of the building.
Sapthaley added that 50 or 60 people were inside the coaching institute on the top floor of the building when the blaze began. The cause was not yet known.
Local officials said that the fire had spread quickly because of the material used in the roof.
