<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">A t least 8 persons were charred to death and another 13 persons were injured, when a major fire that broke out in an electric bike showroom spread to a hotel located above it at Secunderabad late on Monday night, the police said.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“In all eight persons were killed. Some of them are charred to death in the hotel rooms and others succumbed to burns while trying to escape from the fire,” Hyderabad police commissioner C V Anand told reporters after midnight.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to preliminary investigation, a short circuit is suspected to have caused the fire in the electric bike showroom, resulting in explosion of one vehicle after the other. The hotel staff and guests who noticed the fire and smoke and alerted the fire department.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The police said the fire broke out in the electric scooters showroom at around 9 pm and within no time, fire engulfed the entire showroom. Very soon, the fire and smoke spread to the Ruby Hotel located above the showroom, where at least 25 persons were staying.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Due to thick smoke billowing from the showroom, many of those lodged in the hotel showroom were suffocated and fell unconscious. At least five of them were charred in the unconscious state and some others who caught fire jumped out of the hotel rooms,” the police said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The injured were immediately rushed to the Gandhi Hospital and two of them succumbed to burns. The condition of at least four others is said to be serious.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Soon after getting the information, as many as five fire tenders rushed to the spot along with the rescue teams of the police. “We could save 10 people who were caught in the hotel rooms, while some others jumped out of the hotel to save themselves,” fire officer Mohan Rao said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, along with Hyderabad police commissioner C V Anand, director general of fire department Sanjay Kumar Jain, regional fire officer V Papaiah and other top officials went to the spot and supervised the rescue operations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Describing it as an unfortunate incident, Srinivas Yadav said all the injured were being provided the best treatment. “Those who were staying in the lodge were people who had come to the city from other places for work,” he said, adding that a high-level inquiry had been ordered into the incident. Source: HT</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>