Mumbai restaurant fire: 15 people dead after burning bamboo canopy collapses on diners

Dozens more were injured as people stampeded for the exits at the 1 Above restaurant on the fifth floor of a building on Senapati Bapat Marg, in the city’s financial and entertainment district.

Eleven of the victims were young women celebrating a friend’s 28th birthday party.

More than 50 people were brought to a hospital, of whom 12 were being treated for injuries that were not life threatening, said Avinash Supe, a doctor at KEM Hospital.

It is believed that most of those killed died from the effects of smoke inhalation.

The fire started at around midnight local time in the restaurant which was busy with about 100 people.

Flames quickly spread and eight fire engines battled the blaze for more than five hours until it could be brought under control.

Doctor Sulpha Arora, who was dining with a college friend, said she noticed a “small fire” in the corner of the restaurant, but assumed staff would bring it under control.

She said: “Before anyone had time to react in a matter of seconds the flames had spread very rapidly and engulfed the entire rooftop.

“There was no time for anyone to try and bring the fire under control, the only thing possible to do was to try and escape from there.

“By the time I tried to get up, the whole roof above me was coming down in flames.

“There was a stampede and someone pushed me.

“People were running over me even as the ceiling above me was collapsing in flames. I still don’t know how I got out alive.

“There were quite a few flights of stairs we had to run down and as we kept running we could literally feel the fire chasing us because we kept feeling the heat behind us.”

Police said they were investigating the cause of the fire, and had filed a preliminary case against the owners of the restaurant, which was in the city’s Kamala Mills compound.

The building, located in the formerly industrial area of central Mumbai, houses several upmarket restaurants and is now a popular nightlife destination.

Accidental fires are common across India because of poor safety standards and lax enforcement of existing regulations, claim activists who blame corrupt builders, landlords and fire regulation officials.

Disasters are particularly common in Mumbai because of overcrowding. A fire swept through a sweet shop in Mumbai earlier this month, sparking a building collapse which killed 12 sleeping workers.

In September, a gas cylinder exploded in an unfinished building in Mumbai killing six people.