22 patients missing after minor fire in Suri hospital

SURI: Twenty-two patients have gone missing after a fire broke out at Birbhum District Headquarters Hospital on Sunday night. Though the fire did not cause any extensive damage, the hospital authorities are clueless on the whereabouts of the patients even more than 20 hours after the incident.Patients were awakened by thick smoke coming out of the server room of the hospital around 1.30am on Sunday. Those who were being treated in adjacent wards ran wherever they could to save their lives. Though the fire was brought under control within half an hour, 22 patients had left the hospital by the time."The fire was minor in nature and it was doused within 30 minutes. But later, the hospital administration found that 22 patients were missing from various wards. Most of them were to be discharged in a couple of days," said chief medical officer of Birbhum Kartik Chandra Mondal.Mondal and district magistrate P Mohan Gandhi rushed to the hospital on Monday morning. The hospital administration has lodged a missing diary at Suri police station

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