6 dead in Ukraine psychiatric hospital fire

ODESSA, Ukraine: Six people died when fire swept through a psychiatric hospital for war veterans in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, authorities said Tuesday.

The fire erupted late Monday evening in the one-storey building, Ukraine´s emergency services said in a statement. "Six people died and four have been hospitalised," the statement said. Nine other people escaped unharmed.

The facility provided mental health care for veterans of the Soviet Union´s 1980s war in Afghanistan and World War II. Police and emergency services did not immediately comment on whether the fire was started deliberately, but said it did not appear to have originated inside the building.

Paramedics continued to search the hospital after the fire had been extinguished, looking for any patients who could have been left behind, an AFP journalist said. Bodies lay covered on the ground outside the brick building. Fifty-seven firefighters on 12 fire engines fought to extinguish the blaze, emergency services reported.