Uttar Pradesh: At least 13 killed in fire at garment factory​ in Sahibabad

A fire at a suspected illegal garment factory killed 13 people in Uttar Pradesh's Sahibabad area.

Sahibabad: A fire at a garment factory in Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh, killed at least 13 people and several others on Friday.

Reports say that the fire started at 4: 30 am.

The workers were sleeping in the cramped leather factory, which was in a residential building, when the blaze broke out, likely caused by a short circuit.

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

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

"The two of them woke up by chance and say they screamed for others to wake up while running towards the terrace but others didn`t wake up, perhaps it was already late," Hussain said.
He said that the factory was most likely illegal.

"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," he said. 

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