Ten newborn babies have died after a fire broke out at the neonatal unit of a hospital in northern India, with another 16 clinging to life.
The fire broke out late on Friday at the Maharani Lakshmibai Medical College in Jhansi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, 450km (280 miles) south of Delhi.
Footage from the scene showed charred beds and walls inside the ward as a crowd of anguished families waited outside.
Officials said the blaze spread quickly through the ward, where 55 infants were being treated. Babies rescued from the fire, all only days old, were laid side by side on a bed elsewhere in the hospital as hospital staff hooked up their arms to intravenous drips.
“Ten infants have sadly died,” the state’s deputy chief minister, Brajesh Pathak, told reporters.
“Seven bodies have been identified. Three bodies haven’t been identified as yet.”
Another 16 infants were in critical condition after the blaze, news outlet Times Now reported.
Pathak said a safety audit of the hospital was carried out in February, followed by a fire drill three months later.
“The cause of the fire will be probed,” he added. “If any lapses are found, strict action will be taken against those responsible and no one will be spared.”
District official Avinash Kumar said the fire had been caused by an electrical short circuit in the unit.
“We are providing medical care to the critically injured,” he was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times newspaper.
Local media reports quoted other officials who said the fire started in a piece of machinery used to enrich the level of oxygen in the atmosphere.
The high concentration of the combustible gas in the unit helped the fire spread quickly and suddenly, they said.
Broadcaster NDTV reported that 54 infants in total were in the neonatal intensive care unit when the fire broke out.
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, called the deaths “heart-wrenching” in a post on X.
“My deepest condolences to those who have lost their innocent children in this. I pray to God to give them the strength to bear this immense loss,” he wrote.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, announced compensation of 500,000 rupees ($5,900) to bereaved families.
“The district administration and concerned officials have been instructed to carry out relief and rescue operations on a war footing,” Adityanath wrote on X.
Friday’s fire comes six months after a similar blaze at a children’s hospital in Delhi that killed six newborns.
With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
