15 dead as fire rips through Lucknow building

LUCKNOW (UP), JUN 22 (PTI): A major fire blazed through a three-storey commercial building housing an animation centre in a posh north Lucknow neighbourhood on a busy Monday afternoon, leaving at least 15 people, mostly students, dead and seven injured, officials said.
Many of the victims were trapped on the second floor of the building, located on Usha Mehta Marg in a residential part of Aliganj, where students were attending classes at the centre.
Preliminary information suggested the fire may have started in the building’s AC duct and the smoke led to suffocation due to the absence of a proper exit route, UP Urban Development and Energy Minister A K Sharma said, adding possible lapses in building standards would be probed.
Eyewitnesses said several people jumped out of the building, which was completely gutted in the fire.