43 people have died in a devastating fire in a multi-storey building housing a factory in a congested market area of India's capital New Delhi.
Police and fire officials said they were investigating whether a manufacturing unit was operating illegally in the crowded area.
They were "labourers and factory workers sleeping inside this four- or five-storied building," said Sunil Choudhary, New Delhi's deputy chief fire officer.
Reporting from New Delhi, Al Jazeera's Anchal Vohra said the factory in the crowded market hired "cheap labour who were made to work long hours".
"The labourers slept in the factory during the night. The fire took place early in the morning, so they were inside the factory when this happened," she said.
Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents. Many factories and small manufacturing units in big Indian cities are often located in old, cramped quarters of the cities, where the cost of land is relatively cheaper. Such units often also serve as sleeping quarters for poor, mostly migrant labourers and workers, who manage to save money by sleeping overnight at their workplaces.
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