Five patients have died after a fire broke out in the ICU of a designated COVID-19 hospital in Gujarat's Rajkot in the early hours of Friday.
Twenty eight other coronavirus patients being treated at the hospital were rescued, the reports added. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has ordered a probe into the incident, his office said.
The fire broke out in the ICU of Uday Shivanand Hospital in Mavdi area around 1 am on Friday.
"We rushed to the spot and rescued 30 patients after a call informing about the fire was received. Three patients died inside the ICU, while two died shortly thereafter," a fire brigade official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The fire was brought under control, he said, adding he cause of the fire has not been ascertained yet.
The rescued patients have been shifted to other COVID-19 hospitals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths and said the administration is ensuring all possible assistance to those affected.
"Extremely pained by the loss of lives due to a hospital fire in Rajkot. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones in this unfortunate tragedy. Praying for a quick recovery of the injured. The administration is ensuring all possible assistance to those affected," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted.
In August, eight COVID-19 patients were killed after a fire broke out on the top floor of a four-storey private hospital in Ahmedabad.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, taking suo motu cognisance of the Rajkot incident, said that recurrence of such fire accidents needs a thorough introspection.
"These incidents are repeated and we notice that no complete steps being taken by states nor is there any mechanism to abrogate the situation," it said.
The three-judge Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah also sought a response from the Gujarat government on the incident while also taking strong exception to implementation of fire safety mechanism in hospitals across the country.
(with inputs from PTI and ANI)
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