KOLKATA, India — Flames and smoke poured through the hallways of an Indian hospital early today as medical staff fled for their safety and abandoned their patients in a fire that killed 88 people, Indian officials said.

Police arrested six hospital officials on charges of culpable homicide; the hospital denied any violations of safety measures.

“It was horrifying that the hospital authorities did not make any effort to rescue trapped patients,” said Subrata Mukherjee, West Bengal state minister for public health engineering. “Senior hospital authorities ran away after the fire broke out.”

As the fire raged, rescue workers on long ladders smashed windows in the upper floors of the AMRI Hospital to pull trapped patients out before they suffocated from smoke inhalation, while sobbing relatives waited on the street below.