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Calcntta, Thursday (AFP) Three more children have died at a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, taking the death toll over the past four days to 18, officials said.

"Two children died last (Tuesday) night while one died this (Wednesday) morning," Anup Mondal, superintendent of the B.C. Roy Children's Hospital, told AFP.

"The dead children were aged between one and two years," he added.

Fifteen infants, including a newborn baby, had already died in the state-run hospital since Sunday.

Hospital sources said that some of the children may have died because of oxygen shortages at the hospital in Calcutta, the state capital of West Bengal state.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya blamed the number of deaths on "some lapses" on the part of the state-run hospital's management, officials said.

Bhattacharya visited the hospital earlier in an attempt to stem growing public outrage and criticism of state health services and described the deaths as "unfortunate," officials accompanying him said.

"My government has no intention of concealing the truth. It is a fact that so many children had died," a visibly shocked Bhattacharya said.

On Tuesday, hospital chief Mondal said the facility lacked oxygen cylinders as well as other basic equipment such as incubators and scan machines.

But West Bengal's health minister, Suryakanta Mishra, said there was "nothing abnormal" about the deaths.

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