At least 24 Covid-19 patients in western India died on Wednesday when the oxygen supply to their ventilators ran out, amid a nationwide shortage of the gas and a surge in infections.

Maharashtra State Health Minister Rajesh Tope confirmed the deaths at a hospital in Nashik city and said the hospital's oxygen supply ran out because a tanker refilling it suffered a leak. Oxygen was running scarce throughout the country.

Desperate relatives stole oxygen cylinders from a hospital storeroom to keep by their family’s bedside.