A person was arrested in connection with the massive fire that killed ten Indians and a Bangladeshi in Dubai, as focus shifted on the illegal practices that had led to the disaster.

The agent who had rented out the villa illegally has been arrested and the police is searching for another person who was involved in sub-letting the complex, sources said. However, there was no independent confirmation of the arrest.

Most of the bodies recovered from the site have been charred beyond recognition and the relatives have been called for DNA tests to identify the bodies.

A group of experts have been assigned to investigate the cause of the inferno and assess the quality of safety measures that were in place when the fire erupted.

Ten Indians, most of them from Andhra Pradesh, were among the eleven people killed as the ceiling of a single-storey building collapsed due to the fire on Tuesday in Deira locality.

"The fire was not that big and it was put out in a couple of hours but the building was very old and the ceiling collapsed while they were sleeping," Brigadier Mehdi Abdul Al Jalil of Dubai Police said.

Reports said that up to 1,000 labourers were crammed in the 30-room building. International rights organisations have long criticised appalling conditions and safety standards for foreign labourers, mostly Asians, who work in oil-rich Gulf.

India's Consul-General in Dubai Venu Rajamony, who visited the site, assured all possible help for the victims and as many as 42 Indians affected by the incident.

K Sanjeev, G Bakanna, P Chinnaya, P Sudarshan, T Gangadhar, D Chinmallaya, P Raju, P Gagaram, Deva Rajanna and Sailu were the Indians who died in the tragedy.