The toll in the Ahmednagar hospital fire in Maharashtra rose to 11 after one person succumbed to his injuries on Saturday, reported ANI. The fire broke out on at an intensive care unit of the city’s Civil Hospital.

Three to four more people are currently being treated, reported NDTV.

The blaze has been put out. Preliminary information suggests that a short circuit may have been the cause of the fire, according to the news channel.

Twenty people were undergoing treatment at the unit when the fire broke out, News18 Lokmat reported. Fire officials rushed to the spot and moved several patients with the help of nurses, doctors and ward boys.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered an investigation into the incident. He also announced Rs 5 lakh compensation for the families of the deceased.

District Collector Dr Rajendra Bhosle said that the patients in the hospital have been shifted to another medical facility.

“The bodies of all 11 victims were sent for postmortem and the reason behind their death – whether it was caused due to suffocation or due to disruption in medical oxygen supply – is being investigated,” Bhosle said, according to Mint.

Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik said that it was a “very serious” matter that the fire broke out in the newly-constructed unit. He said that hospitals had been directed to conduct fire audits, adding that the Ahmednagar Civil Hospital’s report in this regard would be checked.

Bhosle has said that fire audit had been conducted at the hospital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish at the incident and offered his condolences to the families of the deceased.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called the incident “shocking and disturbing”. He demanded an in-depth inquiry into the incident and strict action against all those responsible.

Several fire incidents at hospitals have been reported in Maharashtra recently. In April, at least 14 coronavirus patients admitted to a hospital in Virar in Palghar district had died after a fire broke out in the medical facility.

A month before that, at least 10 people have died in a fire at a hospital located inside Mumbai’s Dreams Mall.

Besides this, at least 18 coronavirus patients had died in Gujarat in May in a fire accident.

Taking cognisance of a fire at a Covid hospital in Rajkot, in which five patients had died in November last year, the Supreme Court had directed all states to conduct fire safety audits of dedicated coronavirus hospitals across the country to prevent such incidents.