Three more people have died from injuries sustained in Bhubaneswar’s SUM hospital fire, taking the toll to 24 on Friday. While Biswanath Behera of Bhubaneswar and Rashmita Swain of Puri died on Thursday night, SK Qurban of Khurda passed away on Friday morning at Cuttack's Capital Hospital and SCB Medical College and Hospital, reported The Indian Express.

The police will interrogate hospital chairperson Manoj Nayak, who has been accused of negligence, for the next two days. Nayak had surrendered to the local police on Thursday, two days after 21 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the major fire that broke out in the dialysis ward at the facility.

At least 40 patients were reportedly present in the dialysis ward when the fire broke out on the night of October 17. Carbon monoxide fumes spread through air conditioner ducts in the hospital, causing many of the victims, who were on oxygen support, to suffocate. The flames were doused around three hours after the fire broke out. The state government had announced Rs 5 lakh for each of the families of the deceased.

The state government had slapped a closure notice on the facility and asked it to justify why its clinical licence should not be cancelled. According to the Times of India, the district administration had renewed the licence despite the state government's orders. The renewed licence is valid from April 6, 2016, to April 5, 2018.