Nightclub fire in India’s Goa kills 25, including four tourists

The blaze broke out at about midnight on Sunday when a gas cylinder exploded at the nightclub, the Press Trust of India reported, citing local police.

The victims included four tourists and 14 staff members, the police said.

Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant ordered an inquiry into the incident, promising “stringent action” against those responsible.

“I have ordered a magisterial inquiry into the entire incident to identify the cause and fix responsibility,” Sawant said. Any negligence will be “dealt with firmly”, he added.

The blaze also injured 50 people, according to The Times of India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had spoken to Sawant and offered condolences to the bereaved families.

Modi posted on X that his office would offer compensation of up to 200,000 rupees ($2,200) to each family of the victims and 50,000 rupees ($550) to the injured.

“The fire mishap in Arpora, Goa, is deeply saddening,” the prime minister said on X. “My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest,” he added.

Images circulating on social media showed rescue personnel rushing several people into emergency vehicles. Video clips posted online also show balls of fire and thick smoke rising from a low-rise building.

Sawant told journalists at the scene that three of the victims had died from burn injuries, while the others died from suffocation.

At least three of the victims were women, he added.

The ANI news agency reported that the bodies of all of the victims have been recovered.

A security guard who worked near the site of the fire told ANI that the fire had been caused by a gas cylinder.

“We heard a massive explosion,” the guard was quoted as saying. “We later learned that the fire broke out after a cylinder blast.”

Goa, a small coastal state, is a popular tourist destination, especially among foreigners, offering beaches and hilly landscapes. About 5.5 million tourists, including 271,000 from abroad, visited Goa in the first half of the year, according to government data.

Fires are common in India due to poor building practices, overcrowding and a lack of adherence to safety regulations.

In May, at least 17 people died after a fire ripped through a three-storey building in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

A month before that, a fierce blaze broke out in a hotel in Kolkata, killing at least 15 people. Some people clambered out of windows and onto the rooftop to escape.

And last year, at least 24 people died after a fire broke out at a packed amusement park arcade in the western state of Gujarat.

Officials at the time attributed the high number of deaths and injuries at the arcade to a lack of proper safety standards, noting that people were trapped as a temporary structure at the facility had collapsed near the entrance.