Calcutta Park Street fire toll rises to 24

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The blaze started on Tuesday afternoon

At least 24 people are now known to have died in a huge fire in the Indian city of Calcutta, police say.

The blaze, which began on Tuesday afternoon in the Park Street area, has been put out, but the historic Stephen Court building has been badly damaged.

Dozens were also injured - many jumped from high floors to escape, police said. Some 25 people are still missing.

The BBC's Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta says a row over the cause of the fire began even before it was extinguished.

Our correspondent says the fire is one of the worst - in terms of loss of life - experienced by Calcutta in recent years.

Calcutta police chief Mohan Chakrabarti accused the owner of the 100-year-old Stephen Court building of not observing minimum fire safety arrangements.

He said that the fire could have been contained if these were in place.

But local residents accused the fire services of taking nearly an hour to arrive at the scene, even though some fire engines were stationed barely half a kilometre away.

The residents said that by the time the hydraulic ladders arrived, some of those trapped in the burning building had jumped to their deaths.

Officials say the blaze was probably caused by a short circuit in a lift, but an investigation is continuing.

The fire engulfed the six-storey building, home to Music World and adjacent to Flurys, Calcutta's well known confectionery.

Fires in high-rise buildings are fairly common in the city and our correspondent says there have been at least 10 major incidents since 2008.

Electric short circuits have been responsible for most of these fires.

Badly charred

"Many died of severe burns because they were trapped in the building. And some died after they jumped from the high-rise to escape the blaze," Mr Chakrabarti said.

Most of the deaths, he said, were reported after midnight as those admitted to hospitals with severe burns or fractures succumbed to their wounds.

Many of the bodies are yet to be identified.

Stephen Court, built by Armenian real estate speculator Stephen Arathoon in 1910, is one of Calcutta's oldest high-rise buildings.

Nearly 100 fire fighters and 25 fire engines spent several hours struggling to control the blaze.