The photo has been used for illustrative purpose.

A fire at a hospital in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria on Monday killed seven coronavirus patients, security and medical sources said.

Seven other people were injured in the blaze, believed to be caused by a malfunctioning air conditioner in an area designated for isolating COVID-19 patients, the sources said.

Firefighters stopped it spreading to other hospital buildings, and ambulances were dispatched to transfer patients to other medical facilities, the state-run newspaper Akhbar Al Youm reported.

The victims died of suffocation and hospital staff were among those injured, according to local media.

Egypt's prosecutor-general said in a statement that it has launched an investigation into the incident focusing on the technical specifications of the private hospital's intensive care unit.

Egypt has so far registered 65,188 COVID-19 cases including 2,789 fatalities.

Agence France-Presse