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Four babies were killed in a fire at a maternity hospital in Azerbaijan just hours after their birth, Metro reported.

Footage shows firefighters rushing into the premises as flames were raging inside and bringing out newborns from the neonatal unit.

A crowd gathered outside the building in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in the late hours of last night.

Several engines pumped water towards the third and fourth floors, where the fire is believed to have started.

‘The corpses of four children who were treated in the neonatal intensive care unit of the center were found,’ a joint statement of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Health and Medicine said.

Three other people were hospitalised with smoke poisoning, but their condition is stable.

Altogether 26 babies were evacuated from the maternity hospital, local media Axar reported.

Ministry officials later confirmed that the fire at the Republican Perinatal Center on Yusif Safarov Street in the capital was extinguished and that patients and visitors were evacuated.

A criminal investigation has been opened into the incident as the cause of the fire remains unclear.