At least 14 newborn babies have died in a fire that broke out in the maternity ward at one of Pakistan’s most prominent state hospitals,
The Guardian reports.
The blaze began in the early hours of Wednesday and engulfed the ward at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, the biggest state hospital in Islamabad.
A statement by the hospital administration confirmed that 14 newborn babies in the intensive care unit (ICU) died in the fire.
Dr Aneeza Jalil, a hospital spokesperson, told the Dawn newspaper that 15 babies were on the ward at the time and that one baby was saved by a doctor.
Women who had just given birth had to run down several flights of stairs and climb out of windows and down ladders to escape.
The health minister, Mustafa Kamal, said many of the babies were in incubators or on oxygen, and that the oxygen canisters made the fire worse.
Investigators said the fire was started by a faulty air conditioning unit, which exploded inside the nursery where newborn infants under intensive care were sleeping.
