Mumbai/Pune, Aug 6 - A senior civil servant was among the 13 new patients of influenza A (H1N1) in Maharashtra taking the total number of the infected people in the state to 172, authorities said Thursday.

'Nine new cases have been detected in Pune and four in Mumbai, including a senior state civil servant (till Thursday morning),' Pradeep Awate, head of the Swine Flu Control Room, told IANS.

Among the victims who tested positive is State Excise Commissioner I.S. Chahal, he said.

Chahal, who recently returned from a trip to Britain, complained of swine-flu type symptoms and tested positive at the Kasturba Hospital late Wednesday night.

In Pune, two girls from St. Annes High School - where the first fatal victim of swine flu Reeda Shaikh studied - have tested positive, while another girl has been quarantined in the Naidu Hospital for suspected H1N1, Awate added.

Reeda died Monday, triggering panic in Pune where hundreds of people rushed to government hospitals for precautionary check-ups.

According to authorities at the Naidu Hospital in Pune, nearly 800 patients went for swine flu screening Thursday.