At least 31 dead in Saudi Arabia hospital fire

A FIRE ripped through Jazan General Hospital in the Kingdom’s south, on Thursday, killing at least 31 people and injuring over a hundred.

The incident took place in the midnight of Thursday at intensive care and maternity departments of the Jazan General Hospital after which 25 succumbed.

The teams were able to evacuate the children and patients from the intensive care unit without problem, the health ministry said on its Twitter account, but most casualties were on the hospital’s upper floors. All those injured were transferred to other hospitals in the area.

One witness, talking to Saudi TV, said that an electrical fault appeared to have sparked the fire, though authorities have yet to confirm that.

Saudi Civil Defence spokesman Major Yahya bin Abdullah al-Qahtani said the cause of the blaze in the south-western province of Jizan remains unknown.

Jizan is a port city of 70,000 people, on the southwestern tip of the Saudi peninsula.

The Saudi civil defence directorate posted on Facebook that the fire started at about 2.30 am local time.

Some Twitter users accused the hospital of having lax safety standards, after a reporter for al-Arabiya television said he had seen several emergency doors locked with chains when he visited the hospital after the disaster.

A deadly crush at the haj in Mecca in September killed 769 people, according to Saudi officials.

“Twenty-five people died in this fire”.

Saudi Arabian authorities are on the scene investigating.