New Delhi - At least 12 people were killed and 23 were injured when a fire broke out in a shopping mall in India's eastern state of West Bengal, news reports said Saturday.

The blaze in the mall in Sodepur town, 20 kilometres north of state capital Kolkata, was extinguished a few hours after it erupted on Friday night, the Indian Express daily reported.

Senior police officials and witnesses said the victims, which included two women, had died due to suffocation.

"None of the bodies bore serious burns and it was obvious that most of the deaths occurred due to suffocation," Kaushik Chatterjee, a local involved in rescue operations told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the IANS news agency reported that welding work at an establishment inside the mall was suspected of causing the fire.

Doctors at a state-run hospital said that of the 23 injured, 18 were given first-aid while five critically wounded were still being treated.

According to the IANS, the number of casualties rose as the facility did not have any fire-fighting system and also because some people pulled down the shutters believing that would help contain the blaze. (dpa)