MUMBAI: Ten newborn babies have died due to suffocation after a fire broke out at a hospital in Maharashtra at around 2 AM.

Seventeen babies were admitted at the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the four-storeyed hospital in Maharashtra's Bhandara district, about 900 km from the state capital Mumbai, at the time of incident. Seven of them, who were admitted to the inborn ward of the unit, were rescued by the fire brigade officials; those in the outbound ward couldn't be rescued.

All the infants were between a month and three months old, a doctor was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. "Ten children died in a fire that broke out at the SNCU of Bhandara District General Hospital at 2 am today. Seven children were rescued from the unit," District civil surgeon Pramod Khandate said. A nurse first noticed smoke coming out from the neonatal unit, according to PTI, and she alerted the doctors.

"There were fire extinguishers and staff used them while trying to douse the fire. There was too much smoke," Dr Khandate said.

While the cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed, a short circuit is believed to have set off the blaze. Patients admitted to other wards have been shifted.