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A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 9 deceMber 2019
Devastating factory fire kills at least 43 in Indian capital

By SHEIKH SAALIQ smoke and flames shooting
ASHOK SHARMA out of a building near Sadar
Associated Press Bazaar. Inside, he found
NEW DELHI (AP) — A fire be- the fourth floor engulfed in
lieved to be caused by an flames. One floor below, he
electrical short circuit en- saw “20 to 25 people lying
gulfed a building in India’s on the floor.”
capital on Sunday where “I don’t know if they were
handbags and other items dead or unconscious, but
were made by workers they were not moving,”
earning as little as 2 dollars Naushad said.
per day, killing at least 43 He said he carried at least
people. 10 people out of the flames
The blaze in New Delhi’s on his shoulders and into
Karol Bagh neighborhood, the arms of emergency re-
a warren of narrow alley- sponders.
ways with electrical wiring Maisuma Bibi, a day la-
strung helter-skelter, was borer making plastic hand-
the second major fire there bags, survived the blaze.
this year. She said she was sleeping
In February, 17 people in a room with about 18
were killed in a blaze that other women and children
started in a six-story build- on the building’s first floor
ing’s illegal rooftop kitchen. when she woke to find a
Karol Bagh contains the bag full of plastic parts on
city’s largest wholesale A fire engine stands by the site of a fire in an alleyway, tangled in electrical wire and too narrow fire. Her brother-in-law car-
for vehicles to access, in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019.
market for household Associated Press ried her to safety, she said.
goods, known as Sadar Outside a mortuary that
Bazaar. fire appears to have been common. broke out in one of the ar- was guarded by dozens of
The area’s aging buildings caused by an electric short The building’s owner, Rihan, ea’s many alleyways, tan- police officers, some of the
are stacked with apart- circuit,” adding that au- who goes by one name, gled in electrical wire and workers’ relatives said they
ments, shops, storage fa- thorities were investigating was detained on suspicion too narrow for vehicles to had received phone calls
cilities and manufacturing whether the factory was of culpable homicide not access, authorities said. from the men trapped in-
units. operating legally. amounting to murder, Mit- A resident of the area, Mo- side, who begged them to
Assistant New Delhi po- Building laws and safety tal said. hammed Naushad, said he call the fire brigade.
lice commissioner Anil Ku- norms are routinely flouted Firefighters had to fight was woken by people wail- Family members identified
mar Mittal said that “the in New Delhi, making fires the blaze from 100 meters ing at around 4:30 a.m. the dead from photos on
(yards) away because it He went outside to find police officers’ phones.q

Main Lebanon PM candidate

withdraws from consideration

Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — A pos-
sible candidate for prime
minister of Lebanon said
Sunday he is withdraw-
ing from consideration for
the post, prolonging the
country’s political crisis.
Samir Khatib said the
country’s top Sunni reli-
gious authority told him
the community supports
resigned Prime Minister
Saad Hariri to take back
the post. In this photo released by the Lebanese Government, Lebanon’s
Under Lebanon’s sectar- outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri, right, meets with Samir
ian-based political sys- Khatib, the head of a major contracting and construction and
tem, the prime minister once considered a favorite candidate for the post of Prime
comes from the Sunni Minister, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019.
Muslim community, while Associated Press
the president is chosen
from the Maronite Chris- came hours before he was Hariri resigned Oct. 29
tian community. The par- expected to be named as amid nationwide protests
liament speaker is chosen the official candidate fol- in which demonstrators
from the ranks of Shiite lowing consultations be- accused the political elite
Muslims. tween the president and of corruption and mis-
Khatib’s announcement major parliamentary blocs. management. q