Ten children were killed in a fire that broke out at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh on Friday evening. The casualties may go up, said an official.

The fire, possibly due to a short circuit, broke out in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Maharani Laxmibai Medical College in Jhansi. Doctors and medical staff were seen evacuating patients by breaking the windows of the ward filled with smoke before fire brigade officials reached the spot.

“As per the staff present in the ward, the fire broke out around 10.35 pm. Thirty-seven children have been safely rescued. The fire broke out in one of the two units of the children’s ward possibly due to a 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. We have formed a committee to probe the cause of the fire. While most of the children were rescued, as per initial information, 10 children were killed in the accident,” said Avinash Kumar, district magistrate of Jhansi. Six fire engines are present at the spot, he added.

Visuals from outside the medical college showed panic-struck patients and their caretakers, even as a large number of police personnel aided rescue and relief measures. Inside the affected ward, several charred medical equipment were seen.

Heartbreaking visuals showed relatives wailing for the children who died in the accident. “My baby has burnt to death,” said a devastated woman who lost her child.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took note of the tragic accident and expressed his condolence to the families of the victims. “The death of children in an accident that occurred in the NICU of the medical college located in Jhansi district is extremely sad and heartbreaking. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to provide salvation to the departed souls and speedy recovery to the injured,” he wrote in a post on X.

Brajesh Pathak, the deputy chief minister and the minister of medical education of Uttar Pradesh, and the principal secretary of health have left for Jhansi to assess the ground situation.