At least 30 children have died in 48 hours in a government hospital in India's northern Gorakhpur district due to lack of oxygen, said district magistrate Rajeev Rautela.

Most deaths were reported from the neonatal and pediatric wards of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, the largest government hospital of the district.

"The arrangement of liquid oxygen at the medical college was disrupted last night. We immediately contacted principal of the medical college, who said the vendor who supplied the oxygen withdrew the supply owing to non-payment of pending amount," said Rautela.

He, however, added that the supply was restored after intervention of the district administration.

A high-level magisterial probe has been ordered into the incident.

According to local media reports, state government has denied that the deaths occurred because of interrupted oxygen supply.