India, Aug. 17 -- Eight people died in a fire at a hotel in West Bengal's Birbhum district early on Monday, following which police detained one person for alleged lapses in the maintenance of the establishment's fire-fighting system, officials said.

Of the 43 people who were in the hotel in the temple town of Tarapith when the fire broke out, one was undergoing treatment at a hospital, and 34 have been discharged after preliminary examination, they said.

The fire erupted around 4.30 am on the ground floor of the four-storey hotel, when most of the guests were asleep. Many of them were devotees who had come to offer prayers on the last Monday of the holy month of Shravan.

Several guests were trapped on the upper floors as thick smoke sp...