Fourteen infants died in a fire that erupted in the maternity ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, witnesses said. The blaze began in an air-conditioning unit on the third floor of the hospital's mother and child unit early Wednesday morning. Of the 15 babies in the ward at the time, only one was saved.
Parents described a lengthy wait for rescue workers to arrive. "I lost my daughter. She was only three days old," said Khurram Mehmood, 40, who told AFP news agency that rescue services took hours to reach the scene. Another parent, Jaweria, told AFP that the door to the maternity ward was locked during the incident. "For two hours I kept crying and wailing," she said. "Police arrived after four hours and said they are here to investigate."
Witness Hivsa Walid, who was at the hospital with her sister-in-law, heard a shout and initially thought a patient had died before seeing smoke. She and her sister-in-law fled with the newborn, who had been born just days earlier. "We didn't even think about our belongings. We just grabbed the baby and rushed downstairs," Walid recounted. "Some patients had delivered their babies just that night. I don't even know how we managed to get down - it was all a blur."
A hospital official told the BBC that the ward door was not locked but was secured by guards to protect the infants. Police have stated they are investigating the incident.