12 Newborns Dead In Baghdad Hospital Blaze

BAGHDAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Augst,2016) - A fire tore through the maternity ward of one of Baghdad's largest hospitals Wednesday, killing at least 12 premature babies, medical and security officials said. Jassem Lateef al-Karkh, from the Baghdad health directorate, told reporters only seven babies could be saved and were taken to another ward in the Iraqi capital. Health ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Rudeini told AFP the blaze at the Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad was started by an electrical fault just after midnight (2100 GMT Tuesday). "Twenty-nine women patients who were in the same ward were evacuated to other hospitals," he said.

Security services sealed off the area as forensic teams searched the gutted ward and angry relatives massed outside, waiting for information from the authorities. Charred incubators could be seen outside one of the entrances to the hospital, access to which was strictly controlled by the police. The grief of the bereaved parents and relatives was compounded by the fact that the babies' young age and the effects of the fire made it very difficult to identify the bodies.