A massive fire in a four-storey commercial building in Surat on Friday afternoon killed 21 students at a coaching centre. At least three students are still missing.
Seventeen students have been admitted to hospitals in the city, some in a critical condition.
The fire, which broke out around 3.30 p.m on the ground floor of the building, soon engulfed the third and fourth floors of Takshashila Arcade in the Sarthana area of the city. The students, mostly between the ages of 15 and 19, were attending preparatory classes for an architecture exam. The walls and roof of the coaching centre on the top floor were made of plastic. As the fire spread through the building, including the staircase, the victims on the higher floors were trapped.
To escape the blaze, several students tried to jump to safety from the building, which did not have any fire safety systems installed. Four such students were among those killed.
Ninteen fire tenders and two hydraulic platforms were pressed into service, said an official of the Surat fire control room.
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