A baby who was injured twice during an attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul that left 24 people 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍 has survived.

The newborn baby, who was born just three hours before the incident, suffered two injuries to the leg.

Three armed attackers, suspected to be linked to ISIS, entered the hospital capital dressed as police officers before throwing explosives and opening fire.

The surviving injured newborn was among several babies who have been taken to be cared for at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul.

The baby’s mother, Nazia, lost her life in the incident and the newborn was given the same name by her father Rafiullah after he had laid his wife to rest.

Dr Noor ul-Haq Yousafzai, a director at the hospital, told the Times:

“We treated Nazia’s fracture, so she will be able to walk when she grows up. But to see a newborn baby, just three hours old, injured twice. Everyone is shocked. This is heartbreaking.”

And the mother who gave birth in silence was helped by a midwife who cut the baby’s umbilical cord with her hand.

“The mother was in pain but was trying not to make any sound,” the midwife said.

“She even put her finger in the newborn baby’s mouth to stop her from crying,” the woman told AFP by phone on Friday, her voice still shaking three days after the incident.

The raid on the Barchi National Hospital has sparked international concern.

There were 26 mothers in the hospital on the morning the attackers posing as members security forces entered, said the Doctors Without Borders charity, which runs the maternity ward.

Eleven of them lost their lives during the hours-long incident, including three in a delivery room with their newborn babies. Five were injured.

Another 10 sheltered in ‘safe rooms’, which are common in Afghanistan and are often reinforced to protect the occupants.

The midwife, who spoke to AFP on the condition of anonymity, also rushed to one of the safe rooms when the emergency siren went off.

As she and some of the women stayed inside, they could hear loud noises as the attackers moved from room to room throughout the hospital.

Then one of the women began to give birth.

“We helped her with our bare hands, we had nothing else in the room except some toilet paper and our scarves,” the midwife said.