At least 15 COVID-19 patients killed in India hospital fire

Police in western India say at least 15 COVID-19 patients have died after a fire broke out in a hospital early Saturday.

Fifty other patients at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a town in Gujarat state, were rescued by hospital workers and firefighters, said police officer Rajendrasinh Chudasama.

The fire broke out in a COVID-19 ward on the ground floor and was extinguished within an hour, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted fire officer Shailesh Sansiya as saying.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

On April 23, a fire in an intensive care unit killed 13 COVID-19 patients in the Virar area on the outskirts of Mumbai.