'Black smoke' chokes Pakistan maternity ward as hospital fire kills 14 infants

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, who according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were all infants.Witnesses described chaotic and harrowing scenes, including intense smoke and broken glass, a slow response from emergency services and guards reportedly preventing them from leaving the ward.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 lost her infant in the blaze."I do not believe this. Give me my child back... Why did the doctors leave the children there?""The fire spread very quickly. There were babies as young as one-day old," witness Abdul Ghafoor told AFP, adding that he went into the hospital to save patients but could not reach the maternity ward."There was thick black smoke inside and p...