At least 92 people have died after a fire gutted a Covid ward at a hospital in southern Iraq, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor who works there.
More than 100 were also injured in the blaze which broke out in a ward attached to the al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in the city of Nasiriyah late Monday.
An investigation showed the fire began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded, police and civil defence authorities said.
It comes less than three months after a similar fire caused by an exploding oxygen tank killed 82 and injured 110 at a hospital for Covid patients in Baghdad.
At least 92 people have been killed after a fire broke out in a ward for Covid patients in the city of Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, on Monday night
Hospital officials anonymously told journalists the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit and an exploding oxygen tank, without giving further details
Smoke could be seen billowing from the building - which only opened three months ago - before the roof caught fire and collapsed
Fire crews raced to put out the blaze, but it was still burning early Tuesday with distraught relatives gathering at the site for news of their loved ones
As day dawned on Tuesday the full extent of the damage to the building became clear, with the roof collapsed inwards
That fire prompted the resignation of the country's health minister and led to angry protests, which began afresh after Monday's blaze.
'The political parties have burned us,' demonstrators shouted while demanding 'revolution' and burning a police car outside the hospital.
Monday's fire broke out in a temporary ward set up alongside the al-Hussein hospital which was being used to treat severely ill Covid patients.
The ward had space for 70 beds and had opened just three months ago.
Video footage posted online shows thick smoke pouring from the building before the roof catches fire and collapses inwards.
Most of those killed were patients at the facility and either died of smoke inhalation or burns, rescue crews said.
The blaze continued to burn into the early hours of Tuesday morning before it was extinguished and rescue teams could move in.
The rescuers used a crane to remove the charred and melted remains of the hospital ward, as relatives gathered nearby.
A medic at the hospital, who declined to give his name and whose shift ended a few hours before the fire broke out, said the absence of basic safety measures meant it was an accident in the making.
'The hospital lacks a fire sprinkler system or even a simple fire alarm,' he told Reuters.
'We complained many times over the past three months that a tragedy could happen any moment from a cigarette stub but every time we get the same answer from health officials: 'we don't have enough money'.'
While some bodies were collected for burial, with mourners weeping and praying over the coffins, the remains of more than 20 badly charred corpses required DNA tests to identify them.
Medics carry the bodies of victims out of the burned ward, as officials said most were seriously ill Covid patients who died from burns or smoke inhalation
Bodies of victims are lined up outside the hospital amid fears the death toll could rise further with remains trapped inside the collapsed building
A man searches through the burned ruins of a patients' room at the hospital's Covid ward
The Covid ward only opened three months ago and had space for 70 patients, officials said, with at least 63 of those beds filled at the time the blaze started
Men search through the ruins of the Covid ward amid fears the death toll could rise further
There are fears the death toll could rise considerably once victims who were trapped inside the burning building are found.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi chaired an emergency meeting in the wake of the fire and ordered the suspension and arrest of the health director in Dhi Qar province, where Nasiriyah is located.
He also ordered the director of the hospital and the city's director of civil defense to be suspended, and launched a government investigation.
The investigators arrived in Nassiriya on Tuesday and their findings will be announced within a week, Kadhimi's office said.
A Nassiriya court said it had ordered the arrest of 13 local officials in connection with the fire.
An investigation launched after the last fire in Baghdad found widespread negligence and systemic mismanagement in Iraq's hospitals.
Doctors have decried lax safety rules, especially around storing oxygen cylinders.
At the time, the prime minister had ordered inspectors into other hospitals to check for fire risks, though it is unclear exactly what action was taken.
On Monday, Ammar al-Zamili, spokesman for the Dhi Qar health department, told local media that there were at least 63 patients inside the ward when the fire began.
Maj. Gen. Khalid Bohan, head of Iraq's civil defense, said in comments to the press that the building was constructed from flammable materials and prone to fire.
The head of Iraq's semi-official Human Rights Commission said Monday's blast showed how ineffective safety measures still were in a health system crippled by war and sanctions.
'To have such a tragic incident repeated few months later means that still no measures have been taken to prevent them,' Ali Bayati said.
The fact that the hospital had been built with lightweight panels separating the wards had made the fire spread faster, local civil defence authority head Salah Jabbar said.
People attend funeral ceremony of the victims at Imam Ali Holy Shrine in Najaf, Iraq on Tuesday
Rescuers look for bodies after the blaze tore through the ward for Covid-19 patients
President Barham Salih on Twitter said both fires were 'the result of endemic corruption and mismanagement that disregards the lives of Iraqis'.
At the city's morgue, anger spread among people gathered as they waited to receive their relatives' bodies.
'No quick response to the fire, not enough firefighters. Sick people burned to death. It's a disaster,' said Mohammed Fadhil, waiting to receive his bother's body.
The blaze trapped many patients inside the coronavirus ward who rescue teams struggled to reach, a health worker said on Monday before entering the burning building.
In Najaf, a holy Shi'ite city around 155 miles northwest of Nassiriya, an angry Imad Hashim sobbed after losing his mother, sister-in-law and niece.
'What should I say after losing my family,' the 46-year-old said. 'No point demanding anything from a failed government. Three days and this case will be forgotten like others.'
Iraq is in the midst of another severe COVID-19 wave. Daily coronavirus rates peaked last week at 9,000 new cases.
The entrance to the destroyed Covid ward is pictured the morning after the fire, with windows blown out from heat and smoke stains up the walls
A man searches through the ruins of the Covid ward following the devastating fire
A damaged wall is seen next to al-Hussein hospital's Covid unit, which was destroyed by fire
An aerial view shows the main hospital building and the temporary Covid ward which was only built three months ago