Pakistan: 14 infants killed in fire at Islamabad hospital maternity ward

A fire that broke out Wednesday in the maternity ward of a hospital in Islamabad killed 14 infants, Pakistani authorities said, attributing the blaze to a faulty air conditioner.

"A fire broke out on the third floor of the maternal and child health unit at PIMS Hospital," according to a statement released by the district of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, which reported 14 deaths.

The victims are all "infants", according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who expressed their "deep sorrow" in separate statements.

"Such a situation involving children is irreparable," the Prime Minister said, calling for an investigation.

"I lost my daughter. She was only three days old," Khurram Mehmood, 40, told AFP. "My wife was in that ward. They made everyone leave. We were sitting on the road waiting for help," he continued, slumped in front of the hospital.

According to Jaweria, who says she lost her daughter in the fire, the door to the neonatal intensive care unit was locked.

"I can't believe it. Give me back my child," she pleads. "Why did the doctors leave the children there?"

"There was black smoke inside and the patients were trapped," Abdul Ghafoor, a witness to the fire, told AFP. "It took the rescue teams almost two hours to arrive."

On the contrary, Sohail Ashraf, the chief commissioner of Islamabad, assured on X that the emergency call had been made shortly before 07:00 (02:00 GMT) and that rescue and police teams had gone "immediately" to the scene.

According to another witness, who wished to remain anonymous, security guards "wouldn't let them out and the guards were preventing them" from leaving the premises. "People had to break down the door and emergency services had to break the windows to control the fire," she added.

- Electrical failure -

AFP journalists saw a nurse call out the names of the deceased infants in front of families gathered outside the hospital.

A few steps away, Shagufta Parveen cradles her ten-day-old newborn in her arms.

"People were screaming. There was black smoke. We ran for our lives. Thank God my baby is safe and sound," she told AFP, her hands covered in soot.

An AFP journalist also saw other families crying and a man cleaning up shards of broken glass outside the establishment, while guards stood at the entrance.

Aneeza Jalil, a spokesperson for the hospital, explained to AFP that "the fire (started) from the air conditioning" after an electrical failure.

Due to weak safety laws and building standards, and lax enforcement of these, fires in large buildings are frequent in Pakistan.

In January, at least 67 people died in a fire at one of the busiest shopping malls in Karachi, southern Pakistan.

In the same port city, a similar disaster claimed the lives of eleven people in 2023. Two years earlier, 16 workers were killed in a factory fire.

In 2012, also in Karachi, a fire at a textile factory killed at least 250 employees. The building had no emergency exits.