Dozens dead after fire rips through Baghdad COVID-19 hospital

Three days of mourning declared in Iraq after blaze believed to have started when an oxygen cylinder exploded.

At least 27 people were killed and 46 injured after a fire broke out on Sunday in a coronavirus intensive care unit in Baghdad, as Iraq faces a growing wave of COVID-19 cases. The fire at the Ibn Khatib hospital in the Iraqi capital was sparked by an accident that caused an oxygen tank to explode, according to medical sources cited by the Reuters news agency and AFP. The flames spread quickly, according to the civil defence officials, as “the hospital had no fire protection system and false ceilings allowed the flames to spread to highly flammable products.”