Fire breaks out at banquet hall in Delhi's Shahdara   

A two-floor banquet hall was gutted in a fire that broke out in Delhi's Shahdara, police said on Friday. No casualties were reported.

The police suspect that the fire broke out when a misfired cracker struck the banquet hall. However, the exact cause is yet to be ascertained. they said.

On the night of Diwali, the police were patrolling in the Krishna Nagar area when they saw a banquet hall, in flames, prompting them to call the fire department, they said. The hall was locked from the outside.

Ten fire tenders were rushed to the spot and doused the flames. The ground, first and second floors of the hall were damaged.

"The crime team inspected the spot and recorded the incident. The forensic science team will also visit the spot for further investigation. The owner of the building, Rakesh Nagpal, was contacted. The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Fire Services experienced a surge in fire-related calls this Diwali with more than 300 such incidents reported across the city, which is the highest in the past 13 years, an official said on Friday.

According to officials, the increase is attributed to the extensive use of firecrackers.

"The figure marks the highest number of Diwali-related fire and emergency incidents in the past 13 years," DFS chief Atul Garg said.

The DFS, which had ramped up its readiness for the festival by deploying fire engines and personnel across the city, reported that most calls were received between 5 pm on October 31 and 5 am on November 1.