As many as 16 critical COVID-19 patients were rescued and shifted to safer places after a fire broke out in the ICU of a private hospital here on Sunday night, officials said. No casualty was reported due to the blaze, they added.

A fire broke out in Ayush Hospital located on the fifth floor of a multi-storey building on Station Road in Surat at around 11.40 pm Sunday, after which sixteen patients admitted in the ICU were rescued and shifted to safer places with no casualty being reported in the incident, the officials said.