Ten newborns killed in north India hospital fire

A fire ripped through the neonatal unit of a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborns and injuring 17, the authorities said.

Emergency responders rescued 38 newborns from the ward, which housed 49 infants at the time of the incident, said Uttar Pradesh state’s Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak on Saturday.

The fire broke out at 10:30pm (17:00 GMT) on Friday at the Maharani Lakshmibai Medical College in Jhansi, about 450km (280 miles) south of the national capital, New Delhi.

“Seventeen of the injured are receiving treatment in different wings and some private hospitals,” Pathak told reporters in Jhansi.

The newborns died from burns and suffocation. Seven of the dead infants have been identified, while efforts were on to identify the remaining three, Pathak said.

Footage from the scene showed charred beds and walls inside the ward as anguished families waited outside.

The rescued babies, all only days old, were laid side by side on a bed elsewhere in the hospital as staff hooked them up to intravenous drips.

When the firefighters arrived, the ward was engulfed in flames and smoke. Rescuers had to break through windows to reach the babies.

The incident has raised questions over safety measures at the facility.

While there were fire alarms in the intensive care unit, parents and witnesses said they did not activate during the blaze, with hospital staff acting only after they saw the smoke and fire.

“If the safety alarm had worked, we could have acted sooner and saved more lives,” Naresh Kumar, a parent who lost his baby, told The Associated Press news agency.