Seven Killed In Fire At Hotel Housing COVID-19 Patients In India's Southeast - Reports

NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th August, 2020) Seven people are dead after a hotel housing COVID-19 patients in southeastern India caught fire on Sunday morning, the NDTV channel reported.

The incident took place at about 5 a.m. (23:30 GMT on Saturday) in the city of Vijayawada in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Thirty patients are said to have been in the facility at the moment of the incident. The fire triggered panic, and two people reportedly jumped from the burning building.

Twenty people have so far been rescued. A few more are feared to be trapped inside the building, according to the channel.

"We are evacuating the entire building. The reason of fire appears to be a short circuit, as per the preliminary report, but we will have to ascertain this," Krishna District Collector Mohammad Imtiaz said.

After Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh is the second worst-hit state in India, with 85,486 active cases, nearly 130,000 recoveries and 1,939 deaths.