Almaty, Kazakhstan/Moscow - At least 38 people died Sunday in a fire at a drug clinic in the south of the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, local media reported. The cause of the fire, which broke out in the town of Talkykurgan near Kazakhstan's former capital Almaty, was still unknown, media quoted Kazakh authorities as saying.
Around 40 of the clinic's patients and personnel were rescued from the fire, which had spread over an area of 650 square metres. It took firefighters some three and a half hours to bring the blaze under control.
Reports said that a possible cause for the high death-toll in the fire was a delay in raising the alarm.
Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov announced the formation of a state commission to investigate the fire.
A week ago three children died in a house fire in Almaty.
