| Mentally disabled patients, chained to beds, burn to death in India 06/08/2001. Last Updated Mon Aug 6 16:44:06 2001 |
| ERWADI, INDIA - Five people are being questioned by police in southern India after 25 mentally disabled patients died in a fire. |
| One of those being questioned is the owner of the privately owned asylum in Erwadi, 500 kilometres south of Madras. |
| The victims couldn't escape because they were chained to their beds. |
| The fire at Syed Moideen Asylum in Tamil Nadu state broke out at about 5 a.m. and took two hours to put out. |
| Institution caretakers initially ignored the patients as they tried to raise the alarm, police said. They believed the noise to have been the normal screaming of the patients, but called for fire trucks when smoke was noticed. |
| The asylum is one of 15 in the town. This asylum hadn't been licensed by local authorities, police said. It is one of several that have emerged around a Muslim shrine. |
| Patients, mainly from poor families who can't afford proper medical care, are brought to the town by relatives, attracted by the reputed healing powers of the shrine. |
| There were between 50 and 70 mentally ill people inside at the time the fire broke out, most of them chained to their beds. |
| Police said many of the bodies recovered had been burned beyond recognition. |
| Mental patients are commonly chained in such asylums during the night. |
| Many larger institutions in India are reforming their care for mental patients. |
| Written by CBC News Online staff |