A baby was electrocuted after a fire broke out at Shine Children's Hospital in Hyderabad

A three-month-old baby kept in an incubator was killed after a fire broke out in the fourth floor of a private hospital in Hyderabad on Monday morning, the police said. Four other babies who were in the same neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) suffered burns and have been shifted to other medical facilities in the neighbourhood, the police said.

A short-circuit is suspected to have caused a refrigerator kept in the NICU to burst at Shine Children's Hospital in LB Nagar area of Hyderabad. The baby, who was sleeping in the incubator, suffered burns and could not be saved. The three-month-old was the son of a Telangana police constable, police officer Ashok Reddy said.

The parent of another baby, who was told by the hospital officials to shift his child, alleged it was the third time a fire had broken out at the hospital during his child's four-day stay there. There were 42 children in the hospital at the time of the fire at 2:55 am today.

"We didn't realise there was something so seriously wrong. They did not disclose information about the hospital not following fire safety norms," said the father of the baby who has been shifted to another hospital, asking not to be named.

The fire safety licence of the hospital had reportedly expired and it had not been renewed. Sources said the hospital allegedly got away without renewing its fire safety standards with help from some local municipal agency officials.

A police case of causing death due to negligence has been filed against the hospital owner, Sunil Kumar. The building has been seized and shut down for investigation.

According to the fire safety rules in Telangana, no building that has a high risk of catching fire should be used unless the occupier gets a licence from the authorities by paying a fee set by the government.