Hours after a fire broke out in the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran on Thursday, city officials have started a blame game in an attempt to shirk their responsibilities.

“We had three meetings with the management of the Gandhi Hospital before the incident and issued the necessary warnings regarding the safety of the building”, said Mehdi Khosravani, crisis manager of the 6th district of Tehran municipality, where the hospital is located.

According to the official, the Gandhi Hospital was required to have a consultant on how to implement the most advanced firefighting and fire alarm systems in order to maintain safety in the building.

“In general, we have warned about 40 large public and private hospitals in this district over their unsafe conditions”, he stressed.

Motahar Mohammadkhani, the spokesperson for Tehran municipality, also blamed the hospital’s management for the blaze. “This would not have happened if the hospital administrators had heeded earlier warnings. The judicial system should step in,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Hossein Nazari, deputy of urban services of Tehran municipality, said images broadcast made the fire look larger than the reality due to the composite façade of the building. “The fire was an ordinary one,” he claimed, downplaying the scale of the incident.

State TV said the area was cordoned off and the hospital evacuated.

Pedram Pak-Ayin, the spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry, said that “none” of the staff and patients at the Gandhi Hospital were harmed but said patients were transferred to other medical centers.

The exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined.