At least 15 dead after huge fire tears through hotel

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"The death toll has risen to 15, including two children and a woman," police chief Manoj Verma said, via The Sun.

Verma added that an investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire.

The fire occurred at the Rituraj Hotel in Kolkata, which was home to 88 guests in its 42 rooms at the time of the blaze.

Rituraj Hotel is located in the business district of Kolkata.

The inferno broke out at 8.15pm local time on Tuesday, and firefighters had contained it by 4.00am on Wednesday.

Local media reports that hotel guests were forced to scramble onto the building's roof and use their phone torches to signal for help.

Video footage online also shows people climbing onto window ledges to try and escape the fire.

Firefighters used hydraulic ladders to help rescue survivors, the Indian Express reports.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a statement on X, saying that he was "anguished by the loss of lives".

A state spokesperson described the fire as an "unfortunate incident".

"The fire brigade tried to rescue all the people but some of them unfortunately died because of suffocation.

"Two children were among those killed."

Deadly fires are not uncommon in Indian cities due to poor planning and lack of enforcement of safety rules.

Last year, 27 people died after a fire at a games arcade in Gujarat in the west of the country.