84 persons mostly patients choked to death when a major fire engulfed a multi-speciality centrally- airconditioned seven-storey 190-bed AMRI private hospital in the metropolis early on Friday.

The tragedy unfolded over many hours as patients were suffocated to death, some trapped in their beds, others dying in their sleep, too infirm to escape the smoke. The lucky few were brought down the side of the four-storey glass facade building, only six years old, using ropes and ladders as thousands looked on in horror.

Body after body

Following the arrival of emergency crews, the steady flow of bodies continued as ambulances carrying them entered the SSKM hospital one by one and after autopsy and identification, the bodies were handed over to their relatives.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was present at the scene not only consoling the wailing relatives and family members but also directing the authorities over a microphone to expedite the procedural formalities for the families to take back the dead.

Several relatives and family members continued to wait for the bodies to arrive while others jostled with others to complete the formalities.

Banerjee who had ready assistance in form of several of her ministerial colleagues, said: "61 bodies have been brought here so far. Of them post mortem has been performed already on 46 and 16 of the bodies have been identified."

Anger and tears

However, relatives of the dead were angry at the delays and the provision .

"Why my son had to be cut into pieces. I know he is dead... I don't want to know why he is dead. Why could they not spare my child the pain of post mortem?" shouted a father over the body of son which was handed to him after the autopsy.

"My son was doing fine. After requesting the hospital (AMRI) for discharge since the last three days, they had agreed to discharge him today (Friday). They wanted to make money so they had kept him there. Had they released him earlier, he would have been alive," said the father who had come all the way from Midnapore (in West Midnapore) to take back his son after being discharged by the hospital.

Ronojoy Guha, who lost his sister-in-law Parama Chakraborty in the tragedy, accused the hospital staff of being 'inhuman'.

"The bodies recovered from the site were kept in a heap. I and my brother had to find out Parama from the heap. How can they be so inhuman to treat the bodies as lifeless objects?"

As Banerjee announced that the license of the hospital has been cancelled and the owners would be arrested, the angry family members demanded the culprits be hanged for killing their loved ones.

Owners surrender

All six stakeholders of the hospital have reportedly surrendered at a police station in the city.

Owners R.S. Goenka and S.K. Todi have surrendered. Mr. Todi's two sons have also surrendered.

Hospital staff blocked rescuers?

There was complete mayhem as hundreds of local people tried to enter the hospital building to rescue patients, but were denied entry by the hospital staff.

"We saw smoke coming out of the building around 2 in the morning and immediately many of us gathered and came here to extend help. But we were denied entry. Had we been allowed inside, so many people would not have died.

They have mostly died of suffocation because the fire did not reach the higher part of the building," said Ronojit Mondal, a local who along with many other locals have been aiding the rescue work.

"When we reached here we could see some patients wailing for help atop the windows but we were not allowed to go inside by the hospital men. We pleaded, threatened and pushed but could not manage to get inside. They must be punished with death for killing these people," said Irfan, another infuriated local.

There were 164 patients in the building at the time the fire.