Zeeshan Haider
BBC Urdu

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) is one of country's largest public sector healthcare and teaching institutions, located in Islamabad's city centre.

Established in 1985, it serves patients from the capital and adjacent cities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

The hospital comprises more than two dozen medical and surgical specialist units, providing a wide range of services. It has capacity for 1,200 beds and 5,000 outpatients.

It also houses a dedicated children's hospital, offering specialist paediatric care and training for healthcare professionals.

We're slowly getting a picture of what happened inside the hospital.

BBC Urdu quotes a spokesperson for the hospital as saying that the fire broke out in an air-conditioning unit and was quickly ignited by oxygen connections.

The infants in the fire-hit ward were either in incubators or hooked on oxygen equipment, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal tells Geo News.

According to a hospital spokesperson interviewed by The Dawn, the newborn who survived was rescued by a doctor.

For context: Oxygen is not flammable on its own, but it is reactive and can accelerate a fire, making materials burn hotter and faster.

We are getting images of parents of infants who died in the fire, who have gathered outside the hospital.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Carrie Davies
BBC Pakistan correspondent

Outside the hospital there is still a sense of shock.

Police patrol the entrance. Fire engines are parked outside, glass from shattered windows still lies scattered on the pavement mixed with medical masks.

We saw families who had lost infants, crying by the side of the ward. One man told us his three-day-old baby had died.

Hivsa Walid was inside the hospital with her sister-in-law who had given birth days before the fire started. They were in the nursery opposite the room where the fire started.

She said it was around 6am local time when they heard a shout. Initially they thought someone had died but then they saw the smoke. They grabbed the baby, so small she is yet to have a name, and ran.

Image source, Getty Images

Pakistan has dealt with a number of major fires in recent years.

In January, a fire ripped through the Gul Plaza shopping centre in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi, killing 67 people.

Sixteen people died after a fire hit a small factory in a residential area of Karachi in 2021.

And in 2012, close to 300 labourers died in a factory fire, also in Karachi. The building had no fire exits and workers were trapped behind metal grilles.

Poor enforcement of building safety laws has been blamed for the high number of fatalities in the fires.

Police say the newborns who died in the fire have been badly burnt, and will need to be identified in through DNA tests.

Only after the DNA tests can the bodies be returned to their parents, police say.

Police issued the statement in response to demands from parents that the bodies be returned to them immediately.

Carrie Davies
BBC Pakistan correspondent

We can now bring you more photos from the scene outside the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital.

PIMS is one of the biggest public hospitals in the country.

As a reminder, authorities say that the fire has been extinguished, but it is not yet clear what caused the blaze.

Islamabad's District Magistrate has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the fire which must produce a report "within 24 hours", according to an official document.

The fact-finding committee has been tasked to "ascertain the facts and determine the facts that caused the fire".

As we reported earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an "immediate" inquiry into the fire that killed 14 newborns.

We're now getting the first images from the hospital in Islamabad, where 14 newborns have died in a fire.

Authorities say the blaze has been extinguished.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has released a statement expressing "deep sorrow and heartfelt regret" over the hospital fire.

Sharif has instructed authorities to "conduct an immediate investigation", according to the statement from his office.

"Such a situation with children is irreparable", the statement continues.

Sharif expresses his "heartfelt condolences to the families of the innocent children", adding "his heart is saddened by this tragic incident".

Carrie Davies
BBC Pakistan correspondent

At least 14 children have died after a fire at a maternity unit in a hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

Rescue teams have said the fire is now under control and those injured taken to the ICU.

The fire broke out on the third floor of the mother and child unit of PIMS hospital, one of the main state-run hospitals in the city.

According to their spokesperson, 15 newborn babies were in the ward at the time.

TV satellite vans now line the outside of the hospital’s perimeter, waiting for news.

Fourteen newborns have died in the fire, PIMS spokesperson Dr Aneeza Jalil has confirmed to the BBC.

One newborn was rescued, Jalil adds.

The hospital will release a statement soon, she says.

Emergency responders say they have rescued at least 19 people from the hospital.

They include 10 women, seven children and two men.

The PIMS is one of the biggest hospitals in Pakistan's capital.

The hospital has 156 beds in its maternal and child health (MCH) unit, according to its website.

Initial reports say the fire hit the MCH ward, on the hospital's third floor.

A fire has broken out in the neonatal ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad and several infants are feared to have died.

Pakistani authorities have dispatched fire trucks, ambulances and emergency responders to the scene.

We will bring you updates on this breaking story as we get them.