KARUR: Among the 14 people who died in the fire accident at a central Kolkata hotel on Tuesday evening, three, including two minors, were from Karur in Tamil Nadu. The deceased were identified as Muthukrishnan (61), P Diya (10), and P Rithan (3), all residents of Uppidamangalam in Karur district.
Chief minister M K Stalin, along with Karur DMK MLA V Senthil Balaji, consoled the bereaved families and assured them of their support. The three deceased were on a tour with Prabhu (40), an entrepreneur dealing in aloe vera by-products across the country. The family was in the state of West Bengal since April 17.

Muthukrishnan was Prabhu’s father-in-law, while Diya and Rithan were his children. The family was staying at Hotel Rituraj in the Burrabazar area of Kolkata. Prabhu and his wife, P Mathumitha, survived the incident as they stepped out of the hotel to buy dinner.
The rest of the family remained in the hotel along with several others, who were unable to escape the fire and died. While one person died after jumping from the building in a panic, 13 others died of suffocation. Rescue operations were hampered by the congested lanes of the locality, making evacuation difficult.
Prabhu left from Trichy on April 17 and toured the state before arriving in Kolkata. The family was staying at the hotel for the past two days and planned to check out after dinner on the same day, just before the tragedy struck.