Five journalists, including two women, were manhandled and attacked by a group of nearly 15 drug addicts near a chawl in Santacruz East on Thursday, where they had gone to report on the deaths of four people in the fire caused by the cylinder leak.

Manashri Pathak (24) and her cameraperson Narayan Parmar, who work with the Marathi news channel ABP Majha, were returning from the chawl in Golibar Nagar, where the fire took place, around 12.30 pm, when a drug addict, from a group of nearly 15 sitting on the terrace of a BMC pump house nearby, hurled a stone at her, eliciting laughter from the others.