LONDON, May 7 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 children have been treated in a specialist London hospital for a "hyper inflammatory" syndrome that could be linked to the novel coronavirus, the Evening Standard newspaper reported Thursday.

A "cluster" of cases has been detected in southeast London, focusing on Southwark and Woolwich. A 14-year-old boy with no underlying health problems has died, according to the London-based newspaper.

Doctors at Evelina London children's hospital said that the syndrome is similar to Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory disease, and can cause major problems with the heart, said the newspaper.

Kawasaki disease is known as a rare condition that causes inflammation in the walls of the arteries and can limit blood flow to the heart.

The National Health Service (NHS) England has alerted hospitals across the country to what Evelina doctors, in an article in The Lancet medical journal, describe as a "new phenomenon" that could be linked to the virus, said the report.