Police superintendent Balikaran Singh Yadav said the fire broke out early Friday in a restaurant and spread to the hotel next door in Pratapgarh town of Uttar Pradesh state.
Most of the hotel guests were asleep when the fire started at 3 a.m. Yadav says the cause of the fire was a short circuit.
Thirteen guests suffered burns and other injuries as they tried to get out of the four-story building. Nine people with serious burns were taken to hospitals in the nearby city of Allahabad.
A dozen people were rescued and the fire has been put out, police said.
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