LUCKNOW: At least 60 children have died over five days at a government hospital in northern India that suffered oxygen shortages, officials said Saturday amid fears the toll could rise.

Authorities said they have launched an inquiry but denied reports that a lack of oxygen had caused the deaths at the Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur district in Uttar Pradesh state, which is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

Indian media said 30 children died on Thursday and Friday after oxygen supply was disrupted in wards housing the sick, allegedly because the suppliers’ bills were not paid.

“We have launched an inquiry and a preliminary report should be out today. Yes, sixty patients have died at the hospital in the last five days but we don’t think it’s linked to reports of oxygen shortage,” Anil Kumar, Gorakhpur’s divisional commissioner told AFP.

A statement issued by the office of state chief minister Yogi Adityanath, which has ordered the inquiry, said that all 60 deaths had occurred at the hospital’s paediatric ward over a five-day period starting Monday.

Twenty-three children died on Thursday, when, according to the statement, “the pressure of the liquid oxygen supply became low and 52 reserve oxygen cylinders were pressed into service”.

The Hindustan Times newspaper on Saturday described chaotic scenes at the hospital as oxygen supply was disrupted.

“Even as 90 jumbo oxygen cylinders were pressed into service to maintain the supply on Friday, the hospital ran out of oxygen around 1.00am,” it said.

“All hell broke loose,” the report added.

“What followed was complete chaos as panic-stricken relatives of patients ran for help, and with the support of hospital staff tried to maintain supply of oxygen ... using artificial manual breathing bags.

“However, several patients started collapsing due to inadequate supply,” it added.

The region is one of India’s poorest and registers hundreds of child deaths each year from Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, which is rife in parts of eastern and northern India.

“We will be getting more liquid oxygen cylinders tonight or tomorrow, and have also cleared the dues of the supplier,” district official Kumar told AFP.

He added that the deaths “could be (due to) natural (causes), as many patients admitted at the hospital are serious”.

India’s Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a campaigner for children’s rights, described the deaths as “a massacre” on Twitter.

“Thirty kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It’s a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?” he said.

Meanwhile, the opposition tore into the Yogi Adityanath government on Saturday, seeking the scalps of the state Health and Medical Education Ministers for the deaths at the Gorakhpur hospital.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who visited the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital along with the party’s state unit chief Raj Babbar said Adityanath should personally apologise for the tragedy.

The principal opposition in the state, Samajwadi Party (SP) questioned the Chief Minister’s silence in the aftermath of the children’s deaths in his parliamentary constituency and hometown, that has left the state stunned.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said it was very unfortunate that Adityanath has not uttered a word on such a “heart-wrenching” tragedy.

“Gorakhpur where the children have died in such large numbers is the Chief Minister’s constituency and hometown. He has been there several times after assuming the post. And in the past 24 hours he has sadly said nothing on the issue,” he said.

He also slammed the BJP government in the state for the inaction so far, saying while two days back Adityanath suspended 11 officials in Maharajganj and transferred seven others for dereliction of duty, so far no heads have rolled in the BRD Medical College tragedy.

“No official in Gorakhpur listens to anyone, or is accountable to anyone, and it seems that such officials are being patronised by the Chief Minister himself,” Ram Gopal Yadav alleged.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and senior SP leader Ram Govind Chowdhary is to visit the Gorakhpur hospital.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also lashed out at the Adityanath government. She said the state government’s callousness led to the tragedy and called for a high-level probe into the incident.

Mayawati said a three-member fact finding team from her party will visit the medical college.

“The BJP will never accept its mistake and so I leave it to their discretion to remove those responsible,” she said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also questioned Adityanath’s silence. “First the callousness and now the shameless silence. It’s a pity that such indifferent people are ruling the state,” AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari told IANS.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has, however, hit back at the opposition, accusing it of “indulging in politics” on such a serious issue.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said: “Opposition is levelling baseless charges out of frustration as the BJP government under the leadership of Adityanath was working for the welfare of the state and its people.”

Earlier on Saturday, Adityanath dispatched Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh and Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon to the tragedy-struck town with instructions to “spare none for the tragedy”.

They were directed by an “extremely unhappy” Chief Minister to inspect the situation at the state-run facility and take strict action against those responsible, an official said.

Sixty-three children have lost their lives due to encephalitis and reported lack of oxygen supply at the BRD Medical college in five days, of whom many were infants, and 30 of the deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.

The medical college has been receiving massive funds from the state to tackle encephalitis, especially after Adityanath became the Chief Minister.

Attendants and family members of the patients admitted here, however, claim that despite the funds, there were neither doctors, nor proper treatment, adequate medicines or oxygen supply at the medical college.