New Delhi: Seventeen people were killed and two injured in a massive blaze at a firecracker storage unit in outer Delhi's Bawana industrial area Saturday evening, a Delhi Fire Services official said, even as the city government ordered an inquiry into the incident.

The police said the people were either charred or got choked to death.

The fire, which started at the storage unit on the ground floor of a two-storey building, ripped through the structure, the official said. The official said that the rescue operations are underway as more people are suspected to be trapped inside the factory. There is a rubber factory on the second storey above the firecracker factory.

Ten women and seven men were killed, another fire official said, noting that a man and woman have been injured. The two injured have been admitted to a hospital.

"The factory falls in the Delhi State Industrial And Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) area," the official said.