{"id":596552,"date":"2026-08-26T12:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/596552\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T12:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:30:11","slug":"pakistani-pm-suspends-top-health-official-after-14-newborn-babies-killed-in-hospital-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/596552\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani PM suspends top health official after 14 newborn babies killed in hospital fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fourteen newborns die in Islamabad maternity ward firepublished at 12:42 BST<\/p>\n

12:42 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Dan Woodland
Live reporter<\/p>\n

\"AImage source, AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fourteen newborn babies have died after a fire at a maternity ward in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.<\/p>\n

The fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital started on Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n

An air conditioning unit caught fire and was quickly ignited by oxygen connections, a spokesman for the hospital told the BBC.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s minister of state for interior.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

A father of one victim criticised the safety measures<\/a> in place at the hospital, claiming there were “no proper exits” and “all doors were closed”. <\/p>\n

Two senior Pakistani senators are also calling for better safety measures at hospitals<\/a> following the fire, with one saying there is an “urgent need” to modernise safety systems.<\/p>\n

The hospital’s executive director tells the BBC the door to the maternity ward was not locked<\/a>, but that it was manned, citing the need to protect against the possibility of babies being stolen.<\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n

We’re ending our live coverage now but you can read more in our news story<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fourteen newborns die in Islamabad maternity ward firepublished at 12:42 BST 12:42 BST Dan WoodlandLive reporter Image source,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-596552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}