Exploding oxygen tanks killed at least 45 lives at Covid-19 center in Dhi Qar

Shafaq News/ Medical and security sources reported, on Monday evening, that the massive fire that broke out in an isolation center for Covid-19 patients in the city of Nasiriyah took at least 45 lives.

A medical source told Shafaq News Agency, at least 45 people have died and their bodies in charred of fire, while tens were injured in Al-Shifaa Center at Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in Nasiriyah, the center of Dhi Qar Governorate.

The source added that the fate of tens of Covid-19 patients and their companions inside the Center has until now remained unknown.

In the other hand, a security source told Shafaq News Agency, "the fore is caused by three oxygen tanks exploded inside the center."

Meanwhile, civil defense teams are still working to contain the fire.

A civil defence source reported to our Agency, " a sequence continued after the incident inside the hospital due to the oxygen gas tanks and refrigeration devices, and we doubt that someone stands behind the accident."

Another source affirmed Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi headed to Dhi Qar Governorate, southern Iraq to closely follow the incident of the Hospital.

Last September, a fire caused by an oxygen tank explosion at Ibn Al-Khatib COVID-19 hospital in Baghdad took at least 82 lives and forced some people to leap through windows out of the burning building.