Ten babies have died after a fire broke out at a hospital in Maharashtra state of India at around 2am local time, NDTV reported.

Seventeen babies were admitted at the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) of the four-storied hospital in Maharashtra's Bhandara district, about 900 km from the state capital Mumbai, at the time of incident. Seven of them, who were admitted to the inborn ward of the unit, were rescued; those in the outbound ward couldn't be rushed out in time.

All of those who died were aged between a few days and three months, as per reports.

The smoke from the fire had led to the babies suffocating.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths and called the incident a "heart-wrenching tragedy."