Videos on social media showed flames shooting from the building as people gathered nearby. Footage broadcast by Indian news channels showed its exterior badly charred as emergency workers searched the site.
Witnesses said the fire spread rapidly, trapping people on upper floors. Bystanders helped some escape before emergency crews arrived.
“The fire broke out at about 08:50… we rushed to the spot to see that the entire building was on fire. There is a mattress shop at the corner from where we took out mattresses and laid them on the road,” Wasim Raj told ANI news agency.
“People started to jump out of the building from the second and third floors. The fire-fighting team had reached the spot immediately and started rescue work.”
Sher Khan, who lives nearby, described scenes of panic as people trapped on the upper floors cried out for help.
“As the fire intensified, it seemed as if there was no way to jump from here. People spread mattresses, and some from the third floor jumped out with a little kid… She was saying that she fractured her leg,” he said.
Israr Khan, another local resident, told reporters that “all of us have been here since morning. We rescued a child who jumped from the higher floor”.
Several people in the building were from Bangladesh and other South Asian countries and had travelled to Delhi for medical treatment, local lawmaker Satish Upadhyay said.
Fires are common in India, where building safety laws are often poorly enforced.
From factories and coaching centres to hospitals and entertainment venues, many of Delhi’s deadliest blazes have exposed a persistent gap between safety rules on paper and their implementation on the ground.
Investigations have repeatedly pointed to lax inspections, faulty electrical systems and buildings operating beyond their approved use.
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