Sixty Guests Die In Wedding Blaze
(N.Z.P.A -R«uter— Copyright) HYDERABAD (India), May 12. Fire engulfed an awning-covered courtyard during a wedding ceremony at Copiyaridugmen, a village near Hyderabad, last night, killing 60 guests, most of them women and children.
Two hundred others; including 48 who have been detained in hospital with serious burns, were injured as there was a stampede for the only exit. . - Many men escaped the fire by jumping over the courtyard walls. The bride and bridegroom escaped unhurt, but the bridegroom’s mother was trapped and died. Fanned by a strong wind, the blaze spread and engulfed 23 thatched houses—about a sixth of those in the village. About 500 people had gathered for the wedding and
300 of them were in the enclosure when a photographer who wanted to take pictures asked a servant to hold a lamp aloft. Flames from the lamp set fire to tinsel and paper festoons, and the fire quickly spread to the awning. As the screaming crowd tried to get out through a single narrow exit, the whole awning crashed in, engulfing the guests in flames.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31677, 13 May 1968, Page 13
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183Sixty Guests Die In Wedding Blaze Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31677, 13 May 1968, Page 13
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