Multiple fire engines and ambulances were deployed at the scene (Picture: APA TV)

Four babies were killed in a fire at a maternity hospital just hours after their birth.

Footage shows firefighters rushing into the premises as flames were raging inside and bringing out newborns from the neonatal unit.

A crowd gathered outside the building in Baku, Azerbaijan, as several fire engines pumped water, trying to extinguish the blaze on what looks to be the third floor.

‘The corpses of four children who were treated in the neonatal intensive care unit of the center were found,’ a joint statement of the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Health and Medicine said.

Three other people were hospitalised with smoke poisoning, but their condition is stable.

Ministry officials later confirmed that the fire at the Republican Perinatal Center on Yusif Safarov Street in the capital was extinguished and that patients and visitors were evacuated.

A criminal investigation has been opened into the incident as the cause of the fire remains unclear, APA reported.