SKOPJE, Sept 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Fourteen people have died in a fire at a hospital treating coronavirus patients in North Macedonia, authorities said on Thursday.
The fire broke out late on Wednesday following an explosion in a COVID-19 clinic in Tetovo in the northwest of the Balkan country, said Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who immediately headed to the town.
“A huge tragedy has occurred in the Tetovo COVID-19 centre,” Zaev said on Twitter overnight.
“An explosion caused a fire. The fire was extinguished but many lives were lost.”
At least 14 people died in the disaster, the prosecutor’s office later said in a statement, raising the toll from the 10 deaths confirmed overnight.
“Prosecutors have ordered autopsies to identify the bodies of the 14 people who died in the fire and we are looking into whether there are others dead,” the statement said.
Health Minister Venko Filipce had earlier expressed “profound condolences” to the victims’ families on Twitter.
Several injured people were transported to hospitals in the capital.
North Macedonia has reported a rise in coronavirus infections recently, with the daily death toll reaching around 30.
It has recorded more than 6,100 fatalities in total since the start of the pandemic. — NNN-AGENCIES
