DHAKA: A fire has swept through a Russian psychiatric hospital overnight, killing at least three people and leaving more than 30 others feared dead, officials said.

The fire in the one-storey hospital in the village of Luka in the northwestern Novgorod region erupted at around 3 am local time on Friday (around 2300 GMT on Thursday) and quickly engulfed the mostly wooden structure dating back to the 19th century, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
 
Authorities had demanded the facility be closed, but the hospital administration won permission to use it until next year.

Officials said the blaze was likely sparked by a smoking patient, and Russia`s state Rossiya 24 news channel reported that a witness account confirmed that.

It said that the man who triggered the fire was saved.

Emergency officials said that 23 of 60 people who were in the building when the blaze broke out were evacuated.

Emergency teams found the bodies of two patients and a nurse, who they said died while trying to rescue others.

More than 34 people have remained unaccounted for and feared dead.

Emergency workers were combing a nearby forest for patients who may have fled the blaze.

Russia has a poor fire safety record, with about 12,000 deaths reported in 2012.

A similar fire at a psychiatric hospital near Moscow killed 38 people in April.

There have been many fires with high death tolls at state institutions such as hospitals, schools, drug treatment centres and homes for the disabled in the past decade, raising questions about safety measures, conditions and escape routes.

Source: Al Jazeera
BDST: 1348 HRS, SEP 11, 2013
RS/Jck