Six coronavirus patients have died at a hospital in Pakistan after a delay in deliveries meant that oxygen supplies ran too low and had to be rationed.
More than 200 patients were left for hours with limited oxygen at Khyber Teaching Hospital in the northern city of Peshawar due to a shortage of oxygen cylinders at the weekend.
Panicked hospital staff eventually resorted to asking the patients' relatives to try buy oxygen cylinders themselves, though only a small number managed to obtain them.
Six coronavirus patients died at Khyber Teaching Hospital in the northern city of Peshawar, Pakistan after a delay in deliveries caused a shortage of oxygen cylinders on Saturday
The shortage was blamed on the oxygen supply company after a vendor failed to deliver the daily supply of oxygen cylinders.
However, an investigation has been launched and several senior members of staff at the Khyber Teaching Hospital have been suspended.
A spokesman for the government-run hospital told the BBC that five of the dead were patients in the coronavirus ward and one in the intensive care unit.
According to local media, the problems at the hospital began at around 8pm on Saturday evening when the daily supply of fresh oxygen cylinders did not arrive.
More than 200 patients were left for hours with limited oxygen as the hospital rationed supplies after a vendor failed to deliver the daily supply of fresh oxygen cylinders
The hospital rationed its supplies and thirteen patients were moved to the emergency department where a limited supply of oxygen was available however, it too eventually depleted.
A new supply of oxygen cylinders was finally delivered to the hospital at 4am on Sunday but not before several patients had died and many others deteriorated into a critical condition.
According to a report on the incident, the chronic oxygen deficiency 'went unnoticed, unsupervised and unchecked' and no backup oxygen supply had been put in place.
The shortage was blamed on the oxygen supply company however, an investigation has been launched and several senior members of staff have been suspended as a hospital report called it a case of 'criminal negligence'
The hospital called it a case of 'criminal negligence' and seven staff members, including the hospital director have been suspended with immediate effect.
Pakistan is currently battling a second wave of coronavirus infections with more than 420,000 cases and over 8,000 deaths.
There were over 20,000 new cases recorded in the last week, according to John Hopkins University.
Intensive care units in hospitals across the country are now almost full, with provincial governments struggling to deal with the soaring caseload.