KOLKATA, 19 AUG (DNA) —       A fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday, killing nine people, including five Bangladeshi nationals who were seeking medical care, officials said. “Nine people were killed, including a child, in the fire that broke out early on Wednesday,” Anuj Sharma, the fire services director of West Bengal state, told media.

“Thick smoke enveloped the hotel. Some victims were found in the bathrooms.” Building fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and routine disregard for safety regulations. The Kolkata blaze came only two days after eight people were killed in another hotel fire in West Bengal’s holy town of Tarapith, where Hindu devotees had gathered for the sacred month of Shravan.

Sharma said preliminary information suggested an air conditioner at the budget Shika Inn hotel in Kolkata, the West Bengal capital, may have exploded and caused the blaze, Sharma said. Bangladesh’s deputy high commission in Kolkata said Indian authorities told them that five of those killed were Bangladeshi nationals.

“Of the nine, five are Bangladeshis, four of whom are from the same family,” it said in a statement. Santosh Pathak, a member of West Bengal’s ruling party, said the Bangladeshi nationals had traveled to Kolkata for medical treatment.

Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis travel to India every year seeking affordable medical treatment. Kolkata accounts for more than half of those medical travelers because of its proximity to the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, according to official figures. — DNA