Victims of the Frontier Mail fire admitted to the Christian Medical College and Dayanand Hospital in Ludhiana are experiencing severe respiratory problems due to the inhalation of smoke, doctors attending on them told rediff.com.

Thirty-eight passengers lost their lives when three bogies (S-3/4/5) caught fire soon after it had left Ludhiana railway station at 0340 hours IST on Thursday morning. Fourteen were injured.

"We have already discharged Uday Bhaskar of Hyderabad. But two patients, D V Sharma of Hyderabad and Ashok Bhatia of Pitampura in Delhi, are still with us and they have 5 and 10 per cent burn injuries respectively. We hope the two would recover soon and go back to their homes," Dr Panu of the CMC said.

Of the remaining eight admitted to the CMC, two are serious, while the rest are recovering from the shock of the accident.

Dr John Abraham, medical superintendent of the CMC, said, "We have to keep the patients under observation for 48 hours before they are discharged. But they will need prolonged medical treatment."

"We have three patients in Dayanand Hospital and two of them are having breathing problems," a doctor attending on the patients told rediff.com.

Complete Coverage: Frontier Mail Fire