Mumbai shopping complex fire kills 14

At least 14 people including 12 women were killed and 19 others injured when a fire broke out in a roof-top pub of a building during a birthday celebration shortly after midnight in Mumbai, officials said today.

The fire broke out around 12:30am on the third floor of the four-storey building on Senapati Bapat Marg, a commercial hub of the city, a civic official said.

Majority of those killed were women attending a birthday party at a rooftop restaurant, our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting police.

A 28-year-old woman who was celebrating her birthday was among the dead, one reports quoting her grandfather.

Some persons who were in the washroom of a restaurant chocked to death, reports from Mumbai said.

The blaze erupted in Kamala Mills compound and spread quickly to nearly restaurants and offices as well. Fire-fighters took more than three hours to douse the leaping flames.

Initial reports indicated most of the casualties were reported from the vicinity of the restaurants.

A case of culpable homicide has been registered against owners of the restaurant.

"The cooling operations are underway. Some of the injured people are in critical condition," the civic official said.

The building, in Central Mumbai, houses some commercial establishments including some swanky restaurants.

According to the civic official and a senior police official of Mumbai, the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.