Dozens of patients killed in catastrophic hospital fire in Iraq

(LONDON) — A catastrophic fire in a hospital in Iraq has killed dozens of patients who were being treated there.

At least 82 patients have been killed in the massive fire at the Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital in Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad.

“The death toll from the fire that broke out in Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital reached 82 victims,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Major General Khaled Al-Muhanna, in a statement obtained by ABC News.

The Ministry of Interior has ruled out “the existence of a criminal suspicion of the Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital fire accident.”

An estimated 28 patients on ventilators who were seriously ill from COVID-19 symptoms were killed in the fire, tweeted Ali al-Bayati, a spokesman of the commission, according to the Associated Press.

Iraq’s Independent High Commission for Human Rights initially reported on Sunday that 58 people had died in the fire but Iraqi authorities have not yet released an official casualty count, the Associated Press said.

ABC News’ Bader Katy contributed to this report.

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