A fire at a hospital in Saudi Arabia killed 25 people and injured more than 100 others as it ripped through the intensive care unit and the maternity ward before dawn, the Saudi civil defence agency said.

Details of the fire and its victims were scant, but photographs published on Twitter by the agency showed smoke and an intense blaze which appeared to have severely damaged the interior of the white-walled hospital.

The fire broke out at the general hospital in the southwestern port city of Jazan, the capital of the Jizan region, one of Saudi Arabia's poorest areas, near the Yemeni border.

Saudi Arabia's al-Ekhbariya television interviewed a witness who said the cause of the fire appeared to be electrical, and that it swept through the hospital in just 3 minutes.

"We could hear the women screaming," said the man, who was not named.

The 25 dead included one child, the television quoted the director of civil defence in Jizan, Major General Saad bin Al-Ghamdi, as saying.

The 107 injured on Thursday were transferred to other hospitals in the area. The fire was brought under control and an investigation into its cause was under way, the agency added. – Reuters