16 children die at govt hospital in northern India

NEW DELHI - At least 16 children have died at a government hospital in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, health officials said Monday.

All the deaths took place at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in the state's Gorakhpur district in the past 24 hours.

"These deaths have occurred in the hospital's neonatal and intensive care units, where the children were admitted to. Some of them were suffering from encephalitis," an official said.

Local media reports said that some of these children were brought to the government hospital in a critical condition.

A probe has been ordered into the deaths at the hospital, he said.

The same hospital, the biggest in state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's constituency, hogged media limelight in the last week of August after 42 children died there within 48 hours.

And earlier that month, more than 70 infant deaths were reported from the same hospital from various causes, including oxygen shortage.

The hospital attends to hundreds of patients from neighboring Bihar state, other districts of Uttar Pradesh and even the neighboring country of Nepal daily.