Bhubaneswar, April 11 (IANS): Three women died in Odisha's Sambalpur district five hours after surgery was conducted on them in a state-run medical college and hospital, said an official on Saturday.

The official said after conducting caesarean on nine women on Friday, doctors at the VSS Medical College and Hospital kept them in the observation room before shifting them to the ward within 24 hours.

However, three of the women died within five hours of the surgery.

"We had conducted surgery on nine women. The post-surgery condition of the women was all right. But, the condition of three women deteriorated suddenly after taking medicines. After a bout of severe vomiting, they foamed and died," said Lalmohan Nayak, assistant professor of gynaecology.

Noting that there was no problem with the surgery, he said the death could be due to the reaction of the drugs administered to them.

The hospital administration has temporarily stopped use of medicines supplied by the government in the gynaecology ward.

Ruling Biju Janata Dal MLA Raseswari Panigrahi said an inquiry is going on and the truth will come out after the inquiry.