At least 10 children died in a fire that engulfed the children’s ward of a medical college in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district, officials said, as 16 others injured battled for life on Saturday.
District Magistrate (DM) Avinash Kumar told reporters that the fire broke out around 10.45 pm on Friday in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College, possibly due to an electrical short circuit.
The children who were in the outer part of the NICU were rescued, along with some of those who were in the interior part.
“Prima facie there is information of the death of 10 children, ” the DM said.
Those less critical are admitted in the outer section of the NICU while the more critical patients are kept in the interior part, Kumar said.
Divisional Commissioner Jhansi Bimal Kumar Dubey, who reached the hospital around midnight, told reporters that there were about 30 children in the interior section of the NICU and most of them were rescued.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jhansi Sudha Singh on Saturday said another 16 children who suffered injuries in the episode were undergoing treatment. There were over 50 children admitted in the NICU when the incident took place.
A fire brigade was rushed to the spot while senior officers of the district also reached the medical college, Jhansi police said in a brief statement on social media.