3 dead, 34 injured in overnight Hamburg hospital blaze

An overnight blaze that broke out in a room in a geriatric ward of a hospital in Hamburg, Germany, killed three people and forced the evacuation of several elderly patients, the local fire service said on Sunday.

Some 34 people were injured in the incident, which saw the fire in the Marienkrankenhaus facility threaten to spread to the first floor, said the fire service spokesman, Lorenz Hartmann.

"Several elderly people with reduced mobility had to be evacuated along the corridors," he said.

The firefighters managed to bring the fire under control before it could spread to other patients' rooms, he said.

The cause of the blaze had not immediately been determined.