India, May 18 -- At least 17 people were killed and another 10 injured when a devastating fire broke out in a commercial-cum-residential building at the historic Gulzar House, adjacent to the iconic Charminar monument in the old city of Hyderabad, on Sunday morning, the police said.

According to a senior police official from the Charminar police station, the fire broke out around 6.30 am on the ground floor of a building housing some jewellery shops and soon spread to the upper floors of the three-storey structure.

While no one was present in the shops at the time, several families were staying in rooms on the upper floors. Due to the fire, an air conditioner compressor in one of the shops exploded, causing the blaze to engulf the entir...