LAHORE - Three patients suffocated to death while 10 others fell unconscious after fire erupted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Jinnah Hospital late on Monday night, rescue workers and police said here on Tuesday. The hospital administration has shut the ICU for the next five days in order to repair the damages caused by the fire. The hospital officials claimed the fire broke out due to short-circuiting. However, firefighters said the actual case of fire was yet to be ascertained. The hospital administration has also constituted a three-member committee to probe into the happening. At least 10 people including two nurses and a security guard also fell unconscious after the ICU caught fire. They were immediately shifted to another ward, where they are being provided medical treatment in serious condition. The fire also damaged hospital beds and medical equipment inside the ICU. Firefighters reached the spot soon after the incident and managed to put out the fire after one hour-long struggle. Hospital sources said that thick smoke engulfed the entire ICU of the hospital after Monday midnight, shortly after the fire broke out due to the short-circuiting in the air-conditioning plant installed in the ward. Over two-dozen patients were under intensive medical care inside the ICU when the fire broke out. About a dozen patients fell unconscious immediately after inhaling poisonous smoke, causing stampede in the entire hospital. Three patients identified as 20-year-old Hussain, son of Safdar, a resident of Sahiwal, Margrat, 55, wife of Asif Gill, resident of Chichawatni and, Aurangazib, a prisoner from Kot Lakhpat Jail who was admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds died on the spot. Their bodies have been removed to the City morgue. All patients from the ICU were shifted to other wards as rescue workers and hospital administration responded to the emergency within no time. A good number of relatives of the patients also reached the spot after the incident to know about the condition of the loved ones. Many emotional scenes were also witnessed outside the ICU where the relatives of the deceased broke into tears when the dead bodies were taken out. The hospital administration has constituted a three-member committee to probe into the incident and to ascertain the actual cause of fire. Further investigations are underway.