least 15 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in a fire that broke out in a restaurant in Mumbai early on Friday. The fire quickly spread from the top-floor restaurant through a four-storey building, said fire official Balkrishna Kadam. More than 50 people have been taken to hospital. The dead included 11 women, fire officials said.

The building, in the formerly industrial area of central Mumbai, houses several upscale restaurants that had moved in over the past few years to make it a popular nightlife destination, the New Delhi Television channel reported.

“There was a stampede and someone pushed me. People were running over me even as the ceiling above me was collapsing in flames. Still don’t know how I got out alive,” Mumbai gynecologist Sulbha Arora tweeted. The Indian city desperately needs its new metro, but Zoroastrian priests are warning of a ‘backlash from nature’ – and they’re not the only detractors. She said was at the restaurant when it started and “before we knew it the whole place was engulfed in a matter of seconds”.(theguardian)…[+]