At least one person has died after a hospital fire in Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
The blaze broke out shortly after 9 a.m. on Wednesday in the COVID ward on the second floor of the port city’s Papanikolaou hospital, where an estimated 20 patients were receiving care.
Two more seriously injured in hospital fire
According to reports, two more patients were seriously injured and were transferred to the Intensive Care Unit while the rest of the patients were removed from the COVID clinic and moved to other wards of the hospital.
The Fire Service says the fire has been contained.
The cause of the fire, which was being tackled by a team of 30 firemen with 11 fire engines, is not yet known.
The director of the clinic, Diamantis Chloros, stated that the blaze was started by a patient who was treated for coronavirus. He added that the incident was not immediately noticed, and the fire quickly spread to the rest of the building.
In 2015, three people were killed after a fire broke out on the ground floor of Dafni Psychiatric Hospital in Athens.
The three deceased individuals were hospital patients while three more people were seriously injured. The victims died from the fumes.
This is a developing story
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