A fire has killed 24 people at a drug rehabilitation centre in Azerbaijan`s capital Baku, officials say.
Television pictures showed flames leaping through barred windows of a single-storey wooden building.
The fire in a ward for bedridden patients was initially caused by an electrical fault in the building, a government statement said.
Thirty-one people were rescued during the incident, the General Prosecutor`s office said.
Four people were taken to hospital, according to Azerbaijan`s news agency APA.
The blaze, which broke out just before dawn, was fanned by strong winds. It took around three hours for fire fighters to extinguish it.
Azerbaijan`s President Ilham Aliyev visited the site of the fire, the Republican Narcological Centre, after it was extinguished, local media said.
The former Soviet nation has a chronic shortage of rehabilitation places for its 30,000 registered drug addicts.
Nearly 3,000 people applied for places at the centre in 2015 alone, and a new clinic with 250 places has recently been built.
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