NEW DELHI:  Ten newborns have died after a fire broke out at a hospital in Maharashtra on early Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths and called the incident a “heart-wrenching tragedy”.

Seventeen babies were admitted to the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the four-storied hospital in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district, about 900 km from the state capital Mumbai, at the time of incident. The incident occurred at around 2 am today.

Seven of them, who were admitted to the inborn ward of the unit, were rescued by the fire brigade officials while those in the outbound ward couldn’t be rescued. They died due to suffocation, local media reports said.

(With inputs from Agencies)