8 patients die in an explosion at a COVID-19 unit in Turkey

Ankara – At least eight patients with COVID-19 have died this Saturday and eleven have been injured by the explosion of an oxygen tube in a Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a hospital in Gaziantep, southern Turkey.

The accident occurred at 1:45 a.m. when a device that supplied oxygen to one of the patients exploded, the Gaziantep provincial government said in a statement.

“Eight of the 19 patients hospitalized in the ICU have lost their lives. Another eleven have been transferred to other hospitals in the region,” the statement said.

A team of firefighters and police officers were sent to the scene of the accident immediately to put out the fire caused by the blast and move the sick to other buildings.

Authorities have launched a judicial and administrative investigation into the facts.

“The dead patients were between 64 and 85 years old. Seven died in the ICU and another during the transfer to the other hospital,” Okkes Ozeksi, editor of the local newspaper Gaziantep27, told Efe.