More than 50 people have died after a fire broke out in a coronavirus isolation ward at a hospital in Iraq.
The blaze at the Al-Hussein hospital in the southern city of Nasiriya was brought under control late on Monday.
The cause of the fire is unclear, but initial reports suggest it began after an oxygen tank exploded.
Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhemi ordered the arrest of the head of the hospital. Relatives of patients have been protesting outside the building.
Reuters news agency reported clashes with police and two police vehicles set ablaze.
The new ward had space for 70 beds and was built just three months ago, medical officials told the Associated Press news agency. A regional health official said that at least 63 people were inside when the fire began.
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L'incendie a peut-être été provoqué par l'explosion de bouteilles d'oxygène. Ce scénario serait le même que celui de la tragédie qui avait fait plus de 80 morts dans un hôpital de Bagdad il y a deux mois.
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At least 41 people were killed and many others wounded in a huge fire that broke out in a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar, official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
ReplyDeleteThe evening massive fire hit the quarantine center for coronavirus patients in al-Hussein Hospital in the provincial capital city of al-Nasiriyah, some 375 km south of Baghdad, the INA said.
The fire spread in the quarantine center, and firefighters and civil defense teams were striving to evacuate the patients and health workers while trying to put out the fire of some 20 sandwich panel caravans in the makeshift center at the site of al-Hussein Hospital, it added.
Later on, spokesman for the Health Department of Dhi Qar Province Ammar al-Zamily told the INA that the firefighters managed to put out the fire.
Dhi Qar's health department declared a state of emergency after the fire, al-Zamily said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held an emergency meeting with some cabinet ministers and security commanders to discuss the hospital fire and its consequences, al-Kadhimi's media office said in a statement.
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi tweeted that the parliament session on Tuesday will discuss the incident.