At least nine people have died after a fire broke out at a hospital in Romania’s port city of Constanta.
All other patients had been evacuated from Constanta’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases and the fire had been extinguished by mid-morning on Friday, Romania’s emergency situations inspectorate said.
The health ministry said that 113 patients were in the medical unit of the hospital, 10 of whom were intensive care unit patients.
Romania, a European Union country of 19 million, has had two other deadly hospital fires within the past year, which has raised concerns about the country’s ageing hospital infrastructure.
Last November, 10 people died after a fire tore through an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients in the northern town of Piatra Neamt.
Another blaze in January engulfed a ward at Bucharest’s Matei Bals hospital, killing five people.
After the Matei Bals fire, President Klaus Iohannis called for urgent and “profound” reform. He said tragedies like it “must not happen again”.
