ALMATY (Reuters) – A fire at a clinic for drug addicts in the southeastern Kazakh city of Taldykorgan killed 38 people on Sunday morning, the Central Asian state's government said.

The Emergency Ministry said in a statement that workers evacuated and rescued another 40 people. The cause of the fire was unknown.
“The fire was localized by 6:31 A.M. (local time),” the ministry said.
The facility is one of many state-run healthcare institutions offering treatment and counseling to drug addicts in the former Soviet republic which lies on the main drug trafficking route from Afghanistan to Western Europe.