A fire at a hospital north of Cairo on Saturday killed seven coronavirus patients, security and judicial sources said.

The blaze in the intensive care unit of the hospital in Obour district, on the outskirts of Cairo, also injured five other people, the sources said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, the sources said, adding prosecutors had launched an investigation into the incident.

Firefighters were dispatched to the facility and stopped the blaze from spreading, local media reported.

READ ALSO COVID-19: NAFDAC to give emergency approval for N400bn vaccines

Egypt has so far registered 130,126 Covid-19 cases, including 7,309 fatalities.

Health facilities in the North African country, like elsewhere, have been strained by the mounting number of infections.

In June, a fire at a hospital in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria killed seven coronavirus patients and injured seven others.