A fire swept through the AMRI hospital in Kolkata early Friday, killing 73 people, majority of them patients, and sending emergency workers scrambling to evacuate survivors from the smoke-filled building, officials said.
Government officials accused the hospital staff of abandoning the patients and fleeing the building after the fire broke out.
“It's a very serious offense, and we will take the strongest action,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at the scene. Banerjee has ordered the cancellation of the hospital's licence.
S Upadhay, a senior vice president of the AMRI hospital, said 73 have died in the tragedy, 70 patients and three nurses. He announced Rs 5 lakh compensation to the kin of the dead and said expenses of those injured will be completely borne by the company.
Firefighters on long ladders smashed windows in the upper floors of the AMRI Hospital to pull trapped patients out before they suffocated, while sobbing relatives waited on the street below. Rescue workers took some patients on stretchers and in wheelchairs to a nearby hospital.
