Fourteen 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.
Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, a lawmaker representing Islamabad, told reporters in front of the hospital that 15 babies, four hospital workers and several mothers were in the ward when the fire started. Doctors rescued one of the newborns, he added.
Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal said in a statement that the fire broke out after an air conditioning unit exploded and that it spread rapidly because of the presence of oxygen cylinders.
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.”
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 and Salman Masood contributed reporting.