At least ten people were killed in a fire that broke out at about 2am on Saturday at Sewla Jat area of Agra. Those killed included four adults and six children from the same family.
Exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
The house was owned by Braj Mohan Agarwal who was sleeping on ground floor of three storied house with others.
Agarwal ran a provision store house at ground floor of the house while his sons lived in upper storeys of house.
According to sources, the children in the house were studying in candle light as power went off in early night hours. Apprehensions are that the children slept without putting off the candles, which might be one of the reasons of the fire.
"The rescue operation began at 3am and ten dead bodies have been taken out after breaking the wall of nearby house. Fire brigade was called in. They all belonged to family of Braj Mohan Agarwal and dead include four adult and six children," Ajay Kumar Chauhan, the district magistrate of Agra, said.
{{/usCountry}}"The rescue operation began at 3am and ten dead bodies have been taken out after breaking the wall of nearby house. Fire brigade was called in. They all belonged to family of Braj Mohan Agarwal and dead include four adult and six children," Ajay Kumar Chauhan, the district magistrate of Agra, said.
{{/usCountry}}"Those killed were sleeping on the first and the second floor of the house and were taken off guard. We are investigating to assign exact reason behind the deaths," said Chauhan.
Three to four people are reported to have been injured in the fir.
Those who were killed include Mahesh and his wife Sharda and three children Himanshu (17 years), Varsha (15 years), Shubham (13 years) who were living on the second floor.
Rakesh, his wife and children Ankit (12 years), Piyush (10 years) and Prachi (10 years) were also killed as they had no opportunity to escape from the burning house.
Braj Mohan, his wife Kavita and others were saved as they were sleeping on the ground floor.
District magistrate and senior superintendent of police Sunil Chandra Vajpayee along with others were present on the site.