UP garment factory blaze: 12 dead, several injured; Akhilesh announces Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia

"Expressing heartfelt condolences for the people who lost their lives in the incident," Akhilesh said in a statement.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday announced an ex-gratia of Rs two lakh each for the kin of those who killed in a massive fire at a garment factory in Sahibabad.

"Expressing heartfelt condolences for the people who lost their lives in the incident," he said condoling the deaths in the fire through an official statement here.

The Chief Minister has directed the Ghaziabad District Hospital to provide adequate help to all those affected by the fire, it said.

Earlier today, 12 people were killed and several were injured in the massive fire at Sahibabad in Ghaziabad.

The fire reportedly broke out at 4:30 am on Friday.

The workers were sleeping in a cramped leather factory housed in a residential building when the blaze broke out.

A short circuit is suspected to be the cause of the fire.

Twelve fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the inferno.

Local fire officer Abbas Hussain told AFP that two people were rescued after they woke up soon after the fire started.

"From what we see, there was nothing proper and the factory must surely not have been a legal one but we can say for sure only after a proper investigation," Hussain said.

Sahibabad is an industrial belt and many illegal factories run in the area.