NEW DELHI (AP) - Mr Mehboob Alam's phone rang at 5.04am Sunday (Dec 8). It was his 38-year-old nephew, Mohammad Imran, pleading to be saved.

A minute into the call, Imran's voice disappeared. Mr Alam ran toward his nephew in a crowded section of central New Delhi, through the winding labyrinth of dirt lanes, past butcher shops and cart pullers, trailed by other men who had woken up to loud cries for help that echoed from a building on fire.