At least 14 newborn babies died on Wednesday in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, after a fire broke out in a nursery in the city’s largest hospital, according to officials.
The fire spread shortly before 7 a.m. through the third floor of the maternity ward at the Pakistan Institute for Medical Sciences, the Islamabad district administration said in a statement. Rescue teams dispatched six fire engines and four ambulances, it said.
As of late morning on Wednesday, the entrance of maternity ward was cordoned off with yellow tape and about two dozen police officers stood guard in front of it.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan ordered an investigation to begin immediately. “Those responsible should be identified and the strictest action should be taken,” his office said in a statement.
Pakistan’s health care expenditure is among the lowest in South Asia, according to the World Bank. After the government approved a new national budget in June, Pakistan’s largest doctors’ association warned that its health care infrastructure was in “a state of systemic collapse due to structural neglect.”
It was not immediately clear how many infants and mothers were in the ward when the fire broke out, and whether the death toll was definitive. Dr. Aneza Jalil, a hospital official, confirmed that all of the victims were newborns.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not yet authorized to discuss the incident publicly, said the cause of the fire was likely a short circuit. Local media reports suggested the short circuit came from an air conditioning unit. Temperatures have been hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the mornings in Islamabad this month.
The hospital, also known as PIMS, has more than 150 beds in its maternity ward, according to its website. Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, underwent a brief medical checkup at that hospital on Friday.
The fire is the latest deadly incident involving children in just a few months. In June, 14 children died when the rooftop of a tutoring center collapsed on the outskirts of Lahore in Punjab Province.
Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting.
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