Islamabad (Pakistan) (AFP) - A fire erupted in a hospital maternity ward in Islamabad on Wednesday killing 14 infants, Pakistan authorities said, blaming a faulty air conditioner for the blaze.

The dawn fire broke out on the third floor of the Mother and Child Health Ward at the capital’s premier public hospital Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), the Islamabad district office said in a statement.

The statement gave a death toll of 14, all of whom were infants, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Nineteen people, including seven children, were rescued, Deputy Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry said.

Health Minister Mustafa Kamal told reporters outside the hospital that CCTV footage showed that a “spark from the air conditioner fell, and the fire spread within a minute”.

He said 26 fire extinguishers were used to try to extinguish the flames but that there were no water sprinklers in the ward.

Witnesses described chaotic and harrowing scenes, including intense smoke and broken glass, a slow response from emergency services and guards reportedly preventing people from leaving the building.

Khurram Mehmood, 40, told AFP he lost his three-day-old daughter in the blaze and that rescuers took hours to arrive.

“My wife was in the ward. They took everyone out. We were sitting on the road waiting for help,” he said.

The door to the neonatal intensive care unit was locked, according to Jaweria, a woman who said she also lost her infant.

“I do not believe this. Give me my child back… Why did the doctors leave the children there?”

Witness Abdul Ghafoor told AFP that he went into the hospital to save patients but could not reach the maternity ward.

“The fire spread very quickly. There were babies as young as one day old,” he said.

“There was thick black smoke inside and patients were trapped… Rescue teams arrived after almost two hours (after the fire started).”

Another witness, who did not give her name, said hospital security “were not letting them out and the guards were stopping them”.

“People had to break the door down and rescue teams had to break the windows to control the fire,” she added.

The Islamabad chief commissioner, Sohail Ashraf, said the emergency call was made just before 7:00 am (0200 GMT), and emergency responders reached the scene “immediately” and brought the fire under control.

- ‘Ran for our lives’ -

AFP reporters saw a nurse call out the names of babies who had perished in the fire as families gathered outside.

Other patients streamed outside, their faces covered in soot, with one man holding a newborn in his arms.

A mother with black residue from the smoke on her hands stood crying outside the hospital as she held her 10-day-old baby in her arms.

“People were screaming. There was black smoke. We ran for our lives. Thank God my baby is safe,” Shagufta Parveen, the mother, told AFP.

Funerals already started to take place on Wednesday afternoon, as Islamic burials usually happen within 24 hours of death.

AFP journalists saw a tiny body shrouded in white being carried through the streets of the nearby city of Rawalpindi, followed by a solemn line of mourners, before a funeral prayer.

Prime Minister Sharif called for an investigation and said the “strictest possible action” should be taken against those found to be responsible.

He sacked Health Secretary Aslam Ghori, the country’s top civil servant for the department, a statement from his office said.

Chaudhry, the deputy interior minister, told media outside the hospital that authorities would launch a probe, and the bodies of the 14 babies were handed over to their parents.

But he denied that rescuers did not arrive quickly enough on the public holiday, as multiple parents and witnesses said.

“What happened is sad, but there was no negligence when it came to the rescue operations,” he said, adding that teams reached the hospital in six minutes.

“What happened is to be inquired, where the hospital lacked facilities.”

The UN children’s agency UNICEF said it was “deeply saddened” by the deaths, and called for an “urgent review and strengthening of fire prevention and safety standards across health facilities”.

Fires in large buildings are frequent in Pakistan, often due to poor safety laws and building codes as well as lax enforcement.

In January, more than 65 people were killed in a shopping centre fire in the port city of Karachi.

At least 11 people were killed in another shopping mall fire in Karachi in 2023.

In 2012, at least 250 labourers died at a garment factory in Karachi.