TEHRAN: At least nine patients died Tuesday after a fire tore through a hospital in Iran’s northern city of Rasht, state media said.

The fire at Ghaem Hospital broke out at 1:30 am (2200 GMT on Monday), state broadcaster IRIB said, adding that it had been put out and investigators were working to determine what had caused it.

“Unfortunately, nine people lost their lives in this fire accident,” said Mohammad Taghi Ashobi, president of the Gilan University of Medical Sciences in Rasht.

Iran rebukes G7 statement over its nuclear programme escalation

He told state TV that “most of the patients who died… were hospitalised in the intensive care unit”.

According to the reports, the hospital has 250 beds and 142 of them were occupied at the time of the fire.

In November 2023, a massive blaze ripped through a drug rehab centre in Langarud city, also in Gilan province, killing 32 people.

In June 2020, 19 people died in a powerful explosion caused by gas canisters that caught fire at a clinic in northern Tehran.