A fire erupted in a hospital maternity ward in Islamabad on Wednesday killing 14 infants, Pakistan authorities said, blaming a faulty air conditioner for the blaze.
The dawn fire broke out on the third floor of the Mother and Child Health (MCH) ward at the capital's premier public hospital Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the Islamabad district office said in a statement.
The statement gave a death toll of 14, who according to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif were all infants.
Some 19 people, including seven children, were rescued, Deputy Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry said.
"The fire erupted after a blast in (an) air conditioner," Health Minister Mustafa Kamal told Geo TV, adding that ample oxygen in the ward helped it spread.
Television footage showed a gutted, blackened ward with scattered equipment and smoke still rising. There were 16 newborns in the ward when the fire broke out, one of whom was rescued, Geo reported. The ward was later cordoned off, a Reuters witness said.
Witnesses described chaotic and harrowing scenes, including intense smoke and broken glass, a slow response from emergency services and guards reportedly preventing them from leaving the building.
Khurram Mehmood, 40, told AFP he lost his three-day-old daughter in the blaze and that rescuers took hours to arrive. "My wife was in the ward. They took everyone out. We were sitting on the road waiting for help," he said.
The door to the neonatal intensive care unit was locked, according to Jaweria, a woman who said she lost her infant in the blaze.
"There were babies as young as one day old," witness Abdul Ghafoor told AFP, adding that he went into the hospital to save patients but could not reach the maternity ward.
"There was thick black smoke inside and patients were trapped... Rescue teams arrived after almost two hours (since the fire started)."
The Islamabad chief commissioner, Sohail Ashraf, said the emergency call was made just before 7:00am (0200 GMT), and emergency responders reached the scene "immediately" and brought the fire under control.
Another witness, who did not give her name, said hospital security "were not letting them out and the guards were stopping them." "People had to break the door down and rescue teams had to break the windows to control the fire," she added.
'RAN FOR OUR LIVES'
AFP reporters saw a nurse call out the names of babies who had perished in the fire as families gathered outside. Other patients streamed outside, their faces covered in soot, with one man holding a newborn in his arms.
A mother with black residue from the smoke on her hands stood crying outside the hospital as she held her 10-day-old baby in her arms.
"People were screaming. There was black smoke. We ran for our lives. Thank God my baby is safe," Shagufta Parveen, the mother, told AFP.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif called for an investigation and said that the "strictest possible action" should be taken against those found to be responsible.
He sacked Health Secretary Aslam Ghori, the country's top civil servant for the department, a statement from his office said.
Chaudhry, the deputy interior minister, told media outside the hospital that authorities would launch a probe, and that the bodies of the 14 babies had been handed over to their parents. But he denied that rescuers did not arrive quickly enough on the public holiday, as multiple parents and witnesses said.
"What happened is sad, but there was no negligence when it came to the rescue operations," he said, adding that teams had reached the hospital in six minutes. "What happened is to be inquired, where the hospital lacked facilities."
The UN children's agency UNICEF said it was "deeply saddened" by the deaths, and called for an "urgent review and strengthening of fire prevention and safety standards across health facilities."
Pernille Ironside, UNICEF's representative in Pakistan, said: "Every newborn deserves a safe start to life, and every mother and child should be able to receive care in a safe, secure health facility."
Agencies