Ten elderly people were reportedly killed and in a fire that broke out in a hospital in Japan.

The fire, which broke out in the middle of the night, left a further five people injured, police said, with the fire and disaster management agency saying four of them were in a serious condition.

 “We have confirmed the deaths of 10 people — eight in-patients and two hospital workers,” said a local police spokesman. The two hospital workers were a former hospital director and his wife, police later said. All of those who died were between the ages of 70 and 89, police said.

The fire raged for around two hours, having started at 2:20am (1720 GMT) at the four-storey building, which opened as an orthopaedic hospital in 1970.

 “We did our best in fire fighting to save lives… but it was a difficult situation,” a fire station official told a hastily arranged press conference.

“We received news of the fire at a very late stage, and there had been no attempt (by staff) to tackle the fire in its early stages,” he said.

 “We will start an investigation” into the cause of the fire, the official said.