Up To 24 Premature Babies Killed In Maternity Hospital Fire

Up to twenty-four newborn babies were killed when a fire ripped through a Baghdad maternity hospital on Tuesday night. The tragedy, initially thought to have claimed 11 lives, is thought to have been caused by faulty electrical wiring. Ahmed al-Rdainy, a spokesman for the Iraqi Health Ministry, confirmed the babies died of suffocation. Firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours overnight. The news agency Mada Press reports that 29 female patients and seven babies have been transferred to another hospital following the incident. The babies who didn't survive were being cared for in a unit for premature infants.

Update: 12 babies die in fire at maternity ward in Baghdad https://t.co/HXyXQKJKCs pic.twitter.com/CxoT4NRxHi

— CBC News (@CBCNews) August 10, 2016

As devastated relatives gather outside the site of the fire, one father, Hussein Omar (30), told AP that he lost twins in the blaze, a baby boy and a girl born last week. He was advised to check the morgue. Another woman was frantically searching for her four-day-old nephew, to no avail.

Eleven premature babies killed in Baghdad hospital fire https://t.co/zkRSflZsy5 pic.twitter.com/unleme1yEC

— Newsweek Middle East (@NewsweekME) August 10, 2016

Media have been banned from the site of the fire, at the Yarmouk hospital. The hospital has been the centre of controversy already this year, with patients claiming it was so dirty they had to bring their own bed sheets.