Fire swept through a private mental asylum in southern India today killing at least 24 patients, many of them chained to their beds, police said.
Some of the victims at the institution, in Erwadi, 550 kilometres south of Madras, had no chance of escape, a senior police official said.
There were 45 patients in the asylum when the blaze broke out just before dawn, he said.
He said the fire may have been triggered by an electrical short circuit.
