In a tragic incident, three poor patients undergoing dialysis died due to a power cut at the Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital and Post Graduate Institute in Puducherry on Thursday, a senior official said.

"Two women, aged 55 and 75, and a man unfortunately died when they were undergoing dialysis at the hospital due to power cut. The hospital provides free dialysis treatment to poor patients," KV Raman, Director in the Health Department, told IANS.

According to Raman, a committee has been formed to look into the issue on how the power supply was interrupted for seven minutes.

He said the generator power kicked in seven minutes after the power from the grid got cut.

"Normally, the generator power would kick in within a minute. Further, the dialysis machines would work for around 20 minutes even if the power supply gets interrupted. But here the machines did not work when the power supply got interrupted," Raman said.

He said the dialysis equipment is not old as the scheme to provide free dialysis service to the poor was launched only around one-and-a-half years back.

Raman was, however, not sure about the make of the dialysis machines.

The Director futher added that the government has announced a solatium of Rs 500,000 each to the families of the dead.

According to the New Indian Express, of the three patients, Sushil (75) and Amsa (58) died instantaneously while Gansehan (55) died minutes after being taken to the ICU. The duty doctor in charge of the shift, four nurses and a technician have reportedly been suspended. 

The hospital is run by the Union territory administration and all the three patients hailed from Puducherry.

The duty doctor in charge of the shift, four nurses and a technician have been suspended. The incident occurred at 11 am, when the patients were going through the routine procedure.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Malladi Krishna Rao, who visited the hospital reportedly admitted that the power failure caused the deaths.