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Dozens killed in hospital fire

December 24, 2015

A fire at a hospital in southwestern Saudi Arabia has killed at least 25 people and left more than 107 people injured, the country’s civil defense agency said. It is unclear what caused the blaze.

https://p.dw.com/p/1HSeI
Krankenhausbrand in Saudi-Arabien
Image: Reuters

The blaze, which broke out at 2:30 a.m. (2230 Wednesday UTC) at the Jazan General Hospital, was sparked on the first floor in the intensive care unit and the maternity department, the defense agency announced on Twitter.

Those injured in the incident have been transferred to private and general hospitals in the area.

In a follow up message on the social media messaging service, the agency said that “the Jazan hospital accident is now over and [an] investigation is underway to find out the reasons.”

Twenty-one civil defence teams had assisited in putting out the blaze, the agency added in this tweet.

Jazan is located some 1,100 kilometers (690 miles) southwest of the capital Riyadh on the coast near the border to Yemen.

In August, 10 people died and 259 wounded when a fire broke out at a residential complex rented by oil giant Saudi Aramco in the country's Eastern Province.

jlw/jil (AFP, dpa, Reuters)