Three people were killed Tuesday evening when fire broke out in the provincial psychological hospital in Lubliniec, Silesia.

The fire started on the first floor of one of the buildings when a mattress caught fire in one of the wards. All the casualties were patients.

The call to the fire service came before 22.00 CET. The situation is now under control, say emergency services. Around twenty people were evacuated from the building.

This is not the first fire to break out in one of the hospitals in the region in the last few years. On New Years day 2006 three patients died during a fire in a hospital in Bytom, with 20 injured after a drunk patient fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand. (pg)