Eyewitness recalls hospital fire panic

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
The gates of a private hospital in Kolkata were sealed shut after a huge fire broke out the day before.
At least 89 people died.
First at the scene were those who lived near the hospital, one man recalled the panic.
(SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) GANESH SHYAM, A WITNESS, SAYING:
"We were sleeping in the night, at 2:30 in the night; we heard some noise of glass. We saw that the patients were throwing glass from the windows and were asking for help. When we reached the front gate, we saw smoke was coming out from the building and we could not manage to go inside. So we went to the back gate and entered the hospital premises. A few used ladders to climb the building and tried to save the patients. We evacuated a few of the patients."
Relatives mourned the loss of their loved ones, many of those who died were patients in the intensive care unit.
One man had travelled from Tripura after hearing the news of the fire, to find his brother had died in the blaze.
(SOUNDBITE) MANIK MORG, RELATIVE OF A VICTIM, SAYING(Hindi):
"We all saw and heard in the news how the terrible fire occurred. After seeing the news I immediately took a flight from Tripura and came here to Kolkata. I will take the body back today. We spent so much money but what to do? Maybe this is what was written in our destiny."
The fire, which tore through the seven-storey private hospital broke out in the basement and spread through the air-conditioning shafts.
Six of the hospital's directors have been arrested for negligence.
Marie-Claire Fennessy, Reuters.