B.B. Patnak, the director of Capital Hospital, told PTI that most of the victims were patients being treated at Sum Hospital`s first-floor intensive care unit who were using ventilators and suffocated after the fire spread to the ICU.
Police and fire fighters broke windows and worked with hospital staff and volunteers in a massive rescue operation to evacuate more than 500 patients from the hospital, an eyewitness and hospital officials told PTI.
Ramesh Manjhi, a senior fire official, told the New Delhi Television news channel that the fire had been brought under control by late Monday night.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to the victims in a Tweet and called the tragedy "mind numbing."
Authorities in Odisha State directed local hospitals to take in patients from Sum Hospital and ordered an investigation into the fire, PTI said.
Incidents like this aren`t unheard of in India, where public safety norms are routinely flouted. In 2011, a major blaze engulfed AMRI Hospital in the city of Kolkata, killing 89 people.
More about:
-1780923278.jpg&h=190&w=280&zc=1&q=100)
