India, June 4 -- Residents and eyewitnesses near the Malviya Nagar hotel fire site alleged on Wednesday that fire tenders arrived late at the scene, claiming lives could have been saved with a quicker response, even as the Delhi Fire Service rejected the charge. Meanwhile, ten Delhi Police personnel who rushed into the burning building without protective gear to rescue trapped occupants were hospitalised with injuries, all sent to AIIMS, where their condition is reported as stable.

Anjum, who owns a building directly opposite the gutted structure, said she first sensed something was wrong when she went to her father's room early in the morning to give him his medicine. "We smelled something, but thought it might be something else. Then a...