Patients evacuated from Tenerife hospital after ‘arson’ attack

STAFF were forced to evacuate 160 patients from an emergency ward at a hospital in the Canary Islands after a suspected arson attack.

Scenes of chaos followed as a ward was filled by dense smoke and patients were moved outside. 

Forty-three firefighters and 13 emergency vehicles fought to extinguish the blaze. 

Miraculously, no-one was injured during the blaze which the Tenerife Fire Consortium said was started by the explosion of a hospital-owned oxygen tank. 

A 51-year-old woman has been arrested by National Police for her alleged involvement.

Displaced patients have been dispersed to surrounding hospitals on the Canary Islands including the nearby University Hospital as well as sending some patients to other sections of the La Candelaria hospital unaffected by the blaze.

Incendio en hospital de la candelaria santa Cruz de Tenerife pic.twitter.com/ljSF69yATQ

— CESAR (@CESAR92279930) August 13, 2018

Impactantes imágenes del incendio en el Hospital de la Candelaria. La realidad supera la ficción. pic.twitter.com/rN4B9VMc5E

— Ana sabe volar (@Ana_sabe_volar) August 13, 2018