The death toll of Mumbai Mantralaya fire that broke out on Thursday afternoon has reached to 3. Efforts are still continuing on Friday morning to douse the fire. While two dead bodies were recovered late Thursday evening, another was found Friday morning from the building, the sources said.

A major fire broke out Thursday afternoon in room 411 on the fourth floor and quickly spread, engulfing the three top floors of the six storied iconic Mantralaya building in the heart of South Mumbai. The rescue teams, comprising of the fire brigade, the police, an Indian Navy team and Force One commandoes and 41 fire tenders from Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, and other agencies, managed to evacuate and save the 65-odd people trapped on the upper floors.

The fire that has so far claimed 3 lives and injured over a dozen or more still continued on Friday morning, with officials saying the blaze was under control but yet to be fully doused. Fire brigade and city disaster control cell officials said that efforts were on to douse the fire. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has ordered an inquiry by the Crime Branch into the incident to ascertain whether it was an accident, negligence or sabotage.

The fire, which badly gutted the three top floors, has virtually paralysed the functioning of several top political heads and bureaucrats of key departments including the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Revenue, Tribal Welfare, Forests, Urban Development and Housing, Education, besides the offices of the state chief secretary, the State Disaster Management Cell. A main control tower atop the Mantralaya which is linked to all the district headquarters in the state has also been damaged and rendered non-functional, besides damage to furniture and fittings, computers, original files and documents of various departments pertaining to important official decisions. Though not yet confirmed, it is suspected that the important files related to the Adarsh Housing Scheme were also gutted in the fire.