At least 18 people were killed after a fire broke out at a hospital in western India shortly after midnight on Saturday, according to local broadcaster NDTV.

The fire erupted at the four-storied Patel Welfare Hospital's dedicated COVID-19 care center at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday in Bharuch in the western state of Gujarat, Rajendrasinh Chudasama, superintendent of police, Bharuch earlier told local media.

Fifty other patients were rescued by hospital workers and firefighters, he added. Fire and the resultant smoke exposure were thought to have caused the deaths.

According to the Press Trust of India news agency, the blaze was extinguished within an hour.

The cause of the incident was not immediately known.

India, which is battling a second wave of coronavirus infections, has recently witnessed several fatal hospital fires.

On April 28, a hospital blaze in Mumbai killed four patients. And 13 patients died at a private COVID-19 care hospital at Virar, 74 km north of Mumbai, after it caught fire on April 23.