Cancer patients, children, staff flee as blasts rock Iran hospital
Key Takeaways
- Patients were evacuated after explosions rocked Baghaei Hospital in Ahvaz.
- A nurse said four powerful blasts shook the hospital and forced people to flee.
- The evacuation came as the US confirmed a new wave of strikes against Iran.
Patients and medical staff rushed out of an Ahvaz hospital after powerful nearby explosions shook the building during renewed US strikes on Iran
Patients and medical staff were forced to flee Baghaei Hospital in Ahvaz on Wednesday after a series of powerful explosions struck nearby as fighting between the United States and Iran intensified.
Footage showed medics evacuating patients from the hospital as the blasts sent shockwaves through the facility.
"Four explosions in a row occurred, so much so that the blast wave spread throughout, and the patients, even those downstairs, were truly affected by a very heavy wave," one nurse said, adding that breathing equipment for some patients had been shaken.
"It was so close that we thought perhaps the entire hospital was hit. Really, the entire staff, patients, and companions, just rushed out," he continued.
The nurse described how patients in different conditions were quickly evacuated from the building.
"The patients were in different conditions, in the paediatric ward, the baby was in the mother's arms... One was taken in a wheelchair, the other was taken out with help, everyone was evacuated."
The United States had not commented on the reported strikes at the time of publication.
Early on Thursday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed it had launched an "evening wave of strikes against Iran" on July 15.
According to CENTCOM, the operation targeted Iranian command centres, air defence sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities to "further degrading Iran's ability to threaten innocent mariners operating aboard commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz."
Iran responded by launching attacks on what it described as American military and naval positions across the region.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
