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Men jump out of burning villa in Deira with clothes on fire

DUBAI - The people in the Naif area of Deira, which is home to thousands of bachelors, woke up on Tuesday to find an inferno turning a villa complex into ashes.

Mohammed Khan, an expatriate living in an adjacent villa complex, said he was stunned to see panicked men jumping out of the burning building with their clothes on fire. 'For a second, I did not know what to do. Soon I rushed to the men with blankets to douse the flames.

'Some people managed to jump out of the windows on the first floor. The fire spread fast and it was devastating,' he said.

Rajesh Kumar, who lives in an adjacent villa, said, 'I woke up hearing the noise of shouting people. It was chaos everywhere. Nobody had any clue what to do. Civil Defence and police rushed to the seen and cordoned off the area.'

Pulip Sankar, a 30-year-old Indian national who survived the blaze, was weeping as he could not get any news of his brother who was feared to be trapped on the second floor. Pointing to the charred bodies in the wreckage, Sankar lamented, 'That might be my brother.'

Recalling the tragic experience, Sankar said, 'I escaped from the flames by jumping out of the window. I got burns and my right hand was fractured.' Ajay Kumar who took pictures and videos of the inferno said, 'I heard the noise but could not understand initially what was happening. Panicky men were running all around and I took pictures on my mobile phones.'

riyasbabu@khaleejtimes.com