Dan Woodland
Live reporter

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Fourteen newborn babies have died after a fire at a maternity ward in Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

The fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital started on Wednesday morning.

An air conditioning unit caught fire and was quickly ignited by oxygen connections, a spokesman for the hospital told the BBC.

It killed 14 of the 15 babies who were in the ward at the time, a spokesperson said. Seven other babies, two men and 10 mothers were also rescued, according to Pakistan’s minister of state for interior.

A cordon remains in place around the medical centre, which is one of the biggest state-run hospitals in the country, while the bodies of all the babies killed have now been handed over to the parents.

A father of one victim criticised the safety measures in place at the hospital, claiming there were "no proper exits" and "all doors were closed".

Two senior Pakistani senators are also calling for better safety measures at hospitals following the fire, with one saying there is an "urgent need" to modernise safety systems.

The hospital's executive director tells the BBC the door to the maternity ward was not locked, but that it was manned, citing the need to protect against the possibility of babies being stolen.

Islamabad's District Magistrate has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the fire, including the cause and safety measures in place beforehand. It has been tasked with producing a report "within 24 hours".

We're ending our live coverage now but you can read more in our news story.

Usman Zahid
Reporting from Islamabad

Image source, Getty Images

Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry tells the BBC that all 14 babies who died in the fire were handed over to their families only after their identities had been confirmed.

Chaudhry did not confirm whether DNA testing was used to identify the babies.

He says authorities had completed the identification and confirmation process before handing over the bodies and stresses that the babies were not handed over without confirmation.

He says some families recognised their babies through their wristbands, while others could identify them based on their ages.

He mentions that some babies were only three hours old, while others were three days old.

Chaudhry says Islamabad already has the necessary forensic facilities and that officials used those facilities as part of the identification process.

He says the emergency response time after the call was approximately six to seven minutes and described the overall rescue operation as "excellent" - it follows criticism of the response from people at the scene.

According to Chaudhry, seven babies, two men and 10 mothers were rescued.

He says the babies had been in incubators inside a small nursery, where a doctor, and other medical staff were also present.

The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is one of the biggest state-run hospitals in the country.

Established in 1985, it serves patients from Islamabad and adjacent cities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

With more than two dozen medical and surgical specialist units, it has capacity for 1,200 beds and 5,000 outpatients.

It also houses a dedicated children's hospital, offering specialist paediatric care and training for healthcare professionals.

The hospital has 156 beds in its maternal and child health unit, according to its website.

Pakistani senators are calling for better safety measures at hospitals following the fire at the PIMS maternity ward, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reports.

Deputy chairman of the Senate Syedaal Khan Nasir says there is an "urgent need" to modernise safety systems at medical centres, according to APP.

He also calls for regular reviews of safety systems to prevent fire incidents and stresses the need to "take concrete measures" to address this.

Chairman of the Senate Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani says "effective safety measures, comprehensive fire-safety systems, and all necessary emergency response arrangements" must be in place in hospitals.

He adds any negligence or lapse in safety measures would be "unacceptable" and urges the relevant authorities to conduct a "thorough and transparent" investigation into the fire, according to APP.

Image source, EPA

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has suspended Federal Secretary of Health Aslam Ghauri, a top official in the health department, and removed him from his post, Pakistan's information ministry says.

The federal secretary of health is a non-political role that reports to the minister who leads the department.

The information ministry says the prime minister has been chairing a high-level meeting on the hospital fire, and has expressed "deep anger" at some officials.

Eyewitnesses have been describing chaotic and harrowing scenes at the hospital, including intense smoke and broken glass, with some complaining that rescuers were slow to respond.

One of them, Khurram Mehmood, told the AFP news agency he lost his three-day-old daughter in the fire and claimed that rescuers took hours to arrive: "We were sitting on the road waiting for help."

Another witness, Abdul Ghafoor, told the same news agency that the fire had spread "very quickly".

He said he went into the hospital to try to help save patients but could not reach the maternity ward: "There was thick black smoke inside and patients were trapped... rescue teams arrived after almost two hours."

Islamabad chief commissioner Sohail Ashraf has said that rescue and police teams reached the scene "immediately" after the emergency call was first made, and then brought the fire under control, AFP reports.

Image source, Reuters

A father of a victim has criticised the safety measures in place at the hospital.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency the man, who did not provide his name, says: "I wasn’t even able to see my daughter, but the condition of the ward is bad.

"I’ve been going there for eight days, the situation was absurd."

He adds: "That building had no fire security, no proper exits. All doors were closed, only one door was for us to visit our children. They kept the other doors locked because they feared we would come to see our children too often."

Earlier, the hospital's executive director told the BBC the door to the maternity ward was not locked, but that it was manned, citing the need to protect against the possibility of babies being stolen.

Islamabad's District Magistrate has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the fire, and the terms of reference say it will assess whether adequate and functional fire-safety measures were in place.

As we reported earlier, Islamabad's District Magistrate has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the fire and produce a report "within 24 hours".

We can bring you a bit more now on what the committee has been tasked with finding out.

It has been asked to determine the "exact cause of the fire" as well as assessing "whether adequate and functional fire-safety measures were in place", according to the Pakistan government.

It has also been directed to evaluate the response time and "effectiveness of rescue and firefighting operations" and "examine any other relevant matter linked to the incident".

As we've reported, there have been questions about whether the door to the maternity ward was locked - the hospital's executive director told the BBC the door was not locked, but was manned.

The BBC's Pakistan correspondent Carrie Davies is at the scene of the fire, where she says there is real shock that something like this could happen.

She says emergency responders remain at the hospital, and families are outside grieving the loss of their children.

She has spoken to a woman who was in the ward opposite and a man who lost his three-day-old baby in the fire.

Watch her report below.

Two former federal ministers, Fawad Chaudhry and Shireen Mazari, have sought the resignation of Pakistani Health Minister Mustafa Kamal over the hospital fire.

Chaudhry says Kamal must take responsibility for the fire that killed 14 newborns. He adds a suspension or transfer to another department would not be enough.

Mizrai says the hospital has been suffering from negligence, mismanagement and corruption.

As we just reported, a hospital official told the BBC that guards were manning the ward to prevent babies from being stolen.

Carrie Davies
BBC Pakistan correspondent

There have been questions about whether the door to the hospital maternity ward had been locked, trapping the babies inside.

But executive director of PIMS Rana Imran Sikander tells the BBC the door was not locked, but manned instead.

He said this was to protect babies from being stolen from the ward, something that has happened before at government hospitals.

Image source, Corbis via Getty Images

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said those responsible for the fire should be identified and legal action taken.

"Effective fire safety and emergency arrangements should be ensured for the protection of patients in hospitals, especially newborn babies," he says in a post on social media.

The president also expresses "grief and sorrow" and extends his "heartfelt condolences and sympathy" to the families.

The deaths of newborn babies is a "heart-breaking and irreparable loss", he says.

Fourteen newborns have died in a fire at one of Pakistan's largest hospitals. Here's what you need to know:

• The fire broke out at the maternity ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad. It started in an air-conditioning unit and was quickly ignited by oxygen connections
• There were 15 newborns in the ward at the time of the fire and only one was rescued, according to a hospital spokesperson
• A fact-finding committee is due to produce a report within 24 hours, as Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed "deep sorrow and heartfelt regret" over the incident
• Anguished parents have gathered outside the hospital, as authorities say the bodies will undergo DNA testing for identification
• There is a sense of shock at the hospital as people come to terms with what happened, our Pakistan correspondent Carrie Davies writes
• Pakistan is no stranger to deadly fires, with past incidents blamed on poor enforcement of building safety laws. Earlier this year, 67 people died at a shopping centre fire in Karachi

Zeeshan Haider
BBC Urdu

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is one of country's largest public sector healthcare and teaching institutions, located in Islamabad's city centre.

Established in 1985, it serves patients from the capital and adjacent cities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

The hospital comprises more than two dozen medical and surgical specialist units, providing a wide range of services. It has capacity for 1,200 beds and 5,000 outpatients.

It also houses a dedicated children's hospital, offering specialist paediatric care and training for healthcare professionals.

We're slowly getting a picture of what happened inside the hospital.

BBC Urdu quotes a spokesperson for the hospital as saying that the fire broke out in an air-conditioning unit and was quickly ignited by oxygen connections.

The infants in the fire-hit ward were either in incubators or hooked on oxygen equipment, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal tells Geo News.

According to a hospital spokesperson interviewed by The Dawn, the newborn who survived was rescued by a doctor.

For context: Oxygen is not flammable on its own, but it is reactive and can accelerate a fire, making materials burn hotter and faster.

We are getting images of parents of infants who died in the fire, who have gathered outside the hospital.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Carrie Davies
BBC Pakistan correspondent

Outside the hospital there is still a sense of shock.

Police patrol the entrance. Fire engines are parked outside, glass from shattered windows still lies scattered on the pavement mixed with medical masks.

We saw families who had lost infants, crying by the side of the ward. One man told us his three-day-old baby had died.

Hivsa Walid was inside the hospital with her sister-in-law who had given birth days before the fire started. They were in the nursery opposite the room where the fire started.

She said it was around 6am local time when they heard a shout. Initially they thought someone had died but then they saw the smoke. They grabbed the baby, so small she is yet to have a name, and ran.

Image source, Getty Images

Pakistan has dealt with a number of major fires in recent years.

In January, a fire ripped through the Gul Plaza shopping centre in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, killing 67 people.

Sixteen people died after a fire hit a small factory in a residential area of Karachi in 2021.

And in 2012, close to 300 labourers died in a factory fire, also in Karachi. The building had no fire exits and workers were trapped behind metal grilles.

Poor enforcement of building safety laws has been blamed for the high number of fatalities in the fires.

Police say the newborns who died in the fire have been badly burnt, and will need to be identified in through DNA tests.

Only after the DNA tests can the bodies be returned to their parents, police say.

Police issued the statement in response to demands from parents that the bodies be returned to them immediately.