At least 11 babies died and three were rescued after a fire “spread very quickly” in the neonatal ward of a hospital in Senegal’s Tivaouane city, about 120km east of capital Dakar.

The incident took place at the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital which had been newly inaugurated.

“I have just learned with pain and consternation the death of 11 newborn babies in the fire that occurred in the neonatology department of the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital in Tivaouane,” president Macky Sall said in a statement on Twitter on Wednesday.

“To their mothers and their families, I express my deepest sympathy.”

Authorities said the fire appeared to have started with a short circuit. “According to preliminary investigation, a short circuit triggered the fire,” said Senegal’s health and welfare minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr.

Mr Sarr, who is currently in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, said he would cut his trip short and return to the country immediately.

“This situation is very unfortunate and extremely painful,” he said on radio, reported Saudi Arabia-based newspaper Arab News.

“An investigation is under way to see what happened.”

In a statement, Senegal politician and Tivaouane mayor Demba Diop Sy said the fire had “spread very quickly”.

Three babies, however, were rescued from the fire, according to Mr Diop Sy.

The tragedy has once again brought focus on Senegal’s public health infrastructure.

Amnesty International’s Senegal director Seydi Gassama said after Wednesday’s incident that his organisation had called for an inspection and upgrade for neonatology services in hospitals across Senegal after the “atrocious” death of four babies in Linguere last month.

“We sympathise with the pain of the bereaved families and urge the government to set up an independent commission of inquiry to locate the responsibilities and punish the culprits at whatever level they are in the state apparatus,” he said in a statement on Twitter.

The Senegal government also drew condemnation from the opposition.

“More babies burned in a public hospital... this is unacceptable,” tweeted opposition lawmaker Mamadou Lamine Diallo tagging the president.

“We suffer with the families to whom we offer our condolences. Enough is enough,” he added.

In the earlier incident last month, four newborns were killed after a fire broke out in the northern town of Linguere.

Authorities said an electrical malfunction in an air conditioning unit in the maternity ward had caused the fire.

Also last month, a woman died in a hospital after waiting for around 20 hours for an emergency caesarean section in the northern city of Louga.

The woman, Astou Sokhna, had died on 1 April.

After the case drew national attention, a court in Louga handed out custodial sentences to three midwives while another three were acquitted.