A patient has been detained as the prime suspect in a fire that broke out at dawn inside the Sismanoglio Hospital in northern Athens.

A hospital in northern Athens had to be evacuated at dawn on Thursday when a fire broke out in a patients’ room on the first floor, the fire department said.

A patient has been detained as the prime suspect in a fire that broke out at dawn inside the Sismanoglio Hospital in northern Athens.

A 74-year-old man detained in connection with a blaze that destroyed a room inside a hospital at dawn in Athens has allegedly confessed to starting the fire by smoking.