ISLAMABAD, Aug 26 — Parents who lost their days-old babies in a fire that killed 14 infants today at a maternity ward in Islamabad described how they cried desperately for help that took hours to arrive.

“For two hours I kept crying and wailing,” said Jaweria, whose baby died after the fire broke out around dawn on the third floor of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

“Rescue teams arrived too late. Police arrived after four hours and said they are here to investigate.

“To hell with you, rescue team and police. Babies burnt to death there, but nobody could save them.”

Khurram Mehmood, a 40-year-old father, told AFP: “The fire erupted at 6:00 am, rescue and authorities reached at 9:00 am, people were helping themselves.

“I lost my daughter. She was only three days old. My wife was in the ward. They took everyone out. We were sitting on the road waiting for help.”

Pakistan authorities blamed a faulty air conditioner for the fire at the public hospital and insisted there was no delay in help arriving for the terrified parents and infants inside.

But several witnesses, their hands and faces blackened from the smoke, told AFP they waited hours for help from the emergency services.

They were forced to smash through windows to try and get to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Others said they came across locked doors and guards preventing those inside the building from leaving as the fire raged.

“There was thick black smoke inside and patients were trapped,” eyewitness Abdul Ghafoor told AFP.

“I barged in to try to save as many people as I could, but we could not reach the ward where the patients were.

“The fire was in the nursing room, and we could not see anything. Some of us broke the windows to help people get out.”

Another witness, who did not give her name, said her sister-in-law was in the ward with her baby.

“I was with her,” she said. “They were not letting them out and the guards were stopping them.

“People had to break the door down and rescue teams had to break the windows to control the fire.”

I want justice

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an investigation, saying in a statement that “those responsible should be identified and the strictest possible action should be taken”.

A spokeswoman for PIMS, Aneeza Jalil, told AFP the fire was caused by an electrical fault and “fire sparked” from an air conditioner.

Ali Abbas, 20, was with his sister who was a patient in the ward.

“There was a short circuit in the nursery, in the children’s ward,” he said. “It was full of smoke.”

Jaweria, the mother who lost a baby, questioned the action taken by hospital staff and emergency responders.

“My demand is, I want justice,” she told AFP.

“Why did the doctors leave the children there?

“One nurse, one doctor, one gynaecologist, one paediatrician—there was nobody in the entire ward. Why were they not there?

“Give me my child back.” — AFP