MEERUT, April 10: Over 100 people are feared to have died on Monday in a fire that swept through large tents packed with consumers visiting a trade fair the Indian town of Meerut.

Charred bodies of mainly women and children were discovered strewn in the remains of the tents by police who warned the death toll could rise.

“At least 100 people are dead,” said Rajiv Sabarwal, chief of police in Meerut, 80kms north of New Delhi.

Shoppers became trapped inside the three air-conditioned tents once the fire started after flocking to the electronics fair to escape soaring summer temperatures outside, witnesses said.

Initial reports said a short circuit may have sparked the fire, which spread quickly through the three-storey-tall tents made of synthetic cloth with the floors made of wood, witnesses said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed shock at the incident and conveyed his condolences to the relatives of those killed, his office said.

“We have so far removed 45 bodies to the mortuary,” district police chief Raj Kumar Vishwakarma told Star news television.

“Bodies are strewn around. Most of them are of women and children,” eyewitness Rajesh Kumar said.

About 150 people, many with serious burns and other injuries, had been taken to seven local hospitals, said C.B. Palliwal, a doctor at the city’s government hospital.

“Almost 40 per cent of the injured are badly burnt,” he said, adding the hospital was not equipped to handle burn injuries. Many of the injured were being shifted to hospitals in New Delhi.

Witnesses said most of the dead appeared to be women and children.

Each steel-pole framed tent was several metres long and had a one-way corridor with stalls on either side, making it almost impossible for people to escape once the fire began.

Banks of air-conditioners were set up to cool the tents, with the power units outside and the cooling units inside, witnesses said.—AFP