SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The death toll from a fire that broke out in a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq reached 60, the Iraqi ministry of health said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the health ministry said the forensic department was able to identify 39 bodies burned in the fire at Imam Hussein coronavirus hospital in Nasiriyah city.
Health officials said on Tuesday that 92 people died and more than 100 others were injured in the blaze on Monday night.
An investigation showed the fire began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded, police and civil defence authorities said.
Health and civil defense managers in the city and the hospital’s manager had been suspended and arrested on Monday on the orders of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, his office said.
Government investigators arrived in Nasiriyah on Tuesday, according to a statement. Their findings would be announced within a week, Kadhimi’s office said.
It was Iraq’s second such tragedy in three months, and the country’s president on Tuesday blamed corruption for both. A statement from the prime minister’s office called for national mourning.
In April, a similar explosion at a Baghdad COVID-19 hospital killed at least 82 and injured 110.
