Fire kills four newborns in Indian hospital

Four of 40 infants in the newborn-care unit of a government hospital died in central India when a fire swept through the unit late on Monday, government officials said, the latest in a string of hospital fires in the country this year that have killed dozens.

The other newborns at Kamla Nehru Hospital in Madhya Pradesh state, many of them underweight, have been shifted to other wards, state Medical Education Minister Vishvas Kailash Sarang told reporters after the fire was brought under control.

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"The other children are being treated," Sarang later said on Twitter, adding an investigation had been ordered into the fire.

Hospital fires have killed at least 70 people in India this year, including 10 last weekend in Maharashtra, a state neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.