Family members, who lost their near and dear ones in a devastating fire in a multi-storey building in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad, were finding it difficult to identify charred bodies at a hospital here, officials said on Wednesday.

At least 14 people, including women and children, were charred to death on Tuesday after a major fire broke out on the second floor of 'Ashirwad Tower' in the Joraphatak area, around 160 km from the state capital Ranchi.

The bodies were kept in a mortuary at Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College for post-mortem, a district official said.

"Family members and relatives are trying to identify the bodies but they were so charred it is difficult to identify them," one of the hospital officials said. Prof (Dr) UK Ojha, head of the medicine department of the health facility, said that "one of the bodies was identified based on the deceased’s sari".

The district authorities have directed the medical college to conduct post-mortem examinations of the burnt bodies.

Dhanbad Deputy commissioner Sandeep Singh said the rescue operation was completed late on Tuesday and a total of 14 people were injured in the blaze, apart from those charred to death.

Authorities of Patliputra Nursing Home, where the injured were undergoing treatment, claimed that a total of 18 people were admitted to the health facility and most of them were released.

One person is still under treatment, a health facility official said.

"Most of them had faced suffocation problems and they were released at night”, said a doctor of the nursing home situated near 'Ashirwad Tower'.

The health facility supplied water to douse the blaze and joined the rescue operation.

“The multi-storey building has been cordoned off, and investigations are on to ascertain the exact cause of the fire,” a district official said.

Bank More Police Station Officer-in-Charge P K Singh said initial reports suggest that a curtain caught fire from the flames of an earthen lamp in one of the flats of the building.

Governor Ramesh Bais and Chief Minister Hemant Soren expressed grief over the incident.

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