BAGHDAD (April 25): A fire caused by an oxygen tank explosion at a Covid-19 hospital in Baghdad took at least 82 lives and forced some people to leap through windows out of the burning building, witnesses and authorities said on Sunday. As rescuers combed the smoke-charred building, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi blamed negligence and suspended his Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi pending an inquiry into Saturday's blaze at the Ibn Khatib hospital. Security forces cordoned off the hospital, in the Diyala Bridge area of the Iraqi capital, where charred debris and shattered glass littered the ground outside. The governor of Baghdad and another senior health ministry official were also suspended and referred to investigators. "As soon as you arrived at the main entrance (of the hospital), it was suffocating.

Source: The Edge Markets April 25, 2021 14:15 UTC