Five people died in Bengaluru on Monday morning, after a fire broke out at a bar-cum-restaurant in the early hours. 

The incident happened in the vegetable market area after a blaze erupted at Kailash Bar and Restaurant, located on the ground floor of Kumbaara Sangha building, said police. 

The deceased have been identified as Swami (23), Prasad (20) and Mahesh (35), all natives of Tumkur, Manjunath (45), a native of Hassan and Keerthi (24), a native of Mandya. 

The bodies have been sent to Victoria Hospital for post-mortem. 

The Fire Control Room received a call from a man named Chaluvakumar at 3.10am, stating that he could see heavy smoke coming out of the building.

Soon the North fire station personnel were roped in and 20 firefighters rushed to the spot. 

According to Chief Fire Officer (East) Basavanna, who went along to douse the flames, five employees were asleep inside the bar when the fire broke out.

The blaze has been put out but the reason for the fire is not clear and is being probed, police said. 

“Five of them had died in the fire. We had already begun the firefighting operation and a few of us went in to see if anyone was inside. We found five people dead. The entire ground plus one structure was on fire when we reached,” CFO Basavanna said.

(More details awaited)