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An explosion hit a hospital with Covid patients in Baghdad.
According to the Interior Ministry, more than 80 people have died and more than 100 have been injured.
Many are desperately looking for their loved ones in the rubble.
Relatives:
»You were in the recovery station. So far we don't know anything about them. " Journalist: " How many people? " Relatives: " Three. "
Relatives:
“We've been looking for them for an hour.
There is no trace.
We were in the morgue, in every hospital, al-Kindi, in all hospitals.
Not even one of them is there.
There are no telephones ... "
Abbas, relative:
“The telephones are switched off.
We call them and the phones are off.
Since ten o'clock in the evening and until now.
We died.
We don't know anything, not even about one of them, there are three of them.
My uncle, my mother's uncle and my wife's uncle. "
Large parts of the station were completely destroyed by the fire.
Surviving patients were cared for in on-site ambulances.
Eyewitnesses report dramatic scenes.
Ahmed Zaki, eyewitness:
“In the beginning there was an explosion, it started from here. The second explosion was over there. The fire spread like gasoline. The smoke reached my brother. He's sick, I took my brother out on the street, to the checkpoint. Then I came back and went up there. To the last floor, which has not yet burned. I found a girl who was about to suffocate, about 19 years old. She was suffocating, she was about to die. I put her on my shoulders and ran downstairs. People jumped off here. Doctors fell on the cars. All jumped. I kept going up from there, fetching people and coming down again. "
Eyewitness:
“Lots of victims.
We got a lot out.
A boy came out earlier with human bones. "
It is still unclear what triggered the fire.
A short circuit or a problem with the oxygen bottles stored there were named as possible reasons.
According to media reports, one of the bottles had exploded, causing fire to spread in the station.
Firefighters soon got the flames under control.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kasimi ordered a swift investigation.
In addition, the government proclaimed a three-day state mourning.