Fourteen infants were killed when a fire broke out at a state-run hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, triggered by a fault in air conditioning systems, Reuters reported.
The blaze started around 7 a.m. (0200 GMT) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), on the third floor of the hospital’s mother and child health ward, the broadcaster said.
The incident is among the deadliest hospital fires in recent years in the country, where government healthcare is subsidised but facilities are under-resourced and overburdened while watchdogs have frequently criticised state-run facilities as mismanaged.
There were 15 newborns in the ward when the fire broke out, one of whom was rescued, Geo reported.
