Four employees of Laurus Labs die in fire incident at firm's Andhra plant

Drugmaker Laurus Labs said on Tuesday that four of its employees died following a flash fire in a room in a manufacturing block of its plant in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

One other employee is undergoing treatment in a hospital after the incident that occurred on Monday evening, Laurus said.

The company, which specializes in anti-retroviral, hepatitis C and oncology drugs, said it has launched an investigation, without giving any other specifics about the incident.

Laurus said its other manufacturing blocks were running normally and that it did not expect any material impact on its operations.

It employs over 5,700 people at more than eight facilities including in the Indian cities of Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, according to a July filing.

Laurus's shares fell as much as 2.4% in early trading on Tuesday, before recovering to trade down 0.5%. They had already declined about 29% so far this year.

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)