At least 39 people were killed and more than 20 injured after a fire erupted at a coronavirus hospital in Iraq's southern city of Nassiriya, officials said Monday.

"Health crews carried charred bodies out of the burning hospital while many patients were coughing from the rising smoke," a Reuters reporter at the site of the fire site said.
State-run Iraq News Agency cited health ministry officials as saying that search operations at the al-Hussain coronavirus hospital were continuing after the fire was brought under control.
"Raging fires have trapped many patients inside the coronavirus ward and rescue teams are struggling to reach them," a health worker told Reuters before entering the burning building.
Initial police reports suggested that an oxygen tank explosion inside the hospital's COVID-19 ward was the likely cause of the fire, a policeman at the scene of the fire said.
Health sources said the death toll could rise as many patients were still missing. Two health workers were among the dead, they said.
In April, a fire caused by an oxygen tank explosion at a COVID-19 hospital in Baghdad took at least 82 lives while 110 people were also injured.
SOURCE: REUTERS

Apple’s racing movie is finally here
- 5 hours ago

Threads now has a better word filter than Instagram
- 5 hours ago

Railways increases fares second time in 14 days
- an hour ago

Heavy rain likely in parts of Punjab, KP and Kashmir today
- an hour ago

Everything you need to know about Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”
- 3 hours ago

LHC orders release of Sanam Javed
- 10 hours ago

Ali Amin Gandapur challenges state to overthrow KP govt
- an hour ago

Denis Villeneuve is directing the next Bond film for Amazon
- 5 hours ago

What the Supreme Court did to America in 2025
- 3 hours ago

Can the music industry make AI the next Napster?
- 5 hours ago

A million kids won’t live to kindergarten because of this disastrous decision
- 3 hours ago

Drugs seized from female passenger at Islamabad Airport
- an hour ago