Four children died, and more than 20 others suffered from suffocation on Monday in a fire that broke out at a women's and children's hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniyah, an Interior Ministry source said.

The fire broke out in the evening due to an electrical short circuit and the smoke spread to the hospital corridors, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, adding that 150 people have been transferred to other hospitals.

After several hours, Iraqi civil defense teams managed to put out the fire, the source noted.