'Choked to death in this bloody hospital'

Shocked relatives of the patients who died in the fire at AMRI hospital in Kolkata have expressed anger and grief over the incident.

The relatives say that the fire started at around midnight and not 3:30 am as claimed by the hospital authorities.

The bodies of the patients were brought out only after 7 am in the morning, say relatives, which explains the fact that 70 of the 161 patients died of asphyxiation. Eyewitnesses also claimed that the fire tenders reached the site late.

Grieving over her mother’s death, one of the several people who lost their relatives in the fire claimed that none of the hospital staff died in the fire. It is, however, now confirmed that at least three of the hospital staff have died in the fire. She said, as did several others, that the hospital staff abandoned the patients after the fire broke out and no one helped them.