FRANCE: Ten people, including five children, are known to have died after a fire broke out overnight on Friday at a residential block in near the French city of Lyon, local authorities said. Another 14 were injured, four seriously.
The Lyon and Rhone regional authority said the cause of the fire in the eastern suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin was not known at this stage.
Dozens of ambulances and fire crews were sent to the site after the alarm was raised shortly after 3am local time on Friday morning at a seven-storey block of flats.
French Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin, who headed to the scene, said the casualty toll was “definitive”, adding that the dead children were aged between three and 15 years old.
An investigation would determine the cause, he said. The fire was brought under control. Four people were seriously injured, while another 10 were more lightly hurt, the minister said. They included two fire officers, according to the prefecture.
Fire officers said the flames took hold on the ground floor before spreading to the floors above, trapping some residents in their flats while smoke invaded communal areas.
Neighbours heard screams and tried to save lives, according to testimony broadcast by BFM-TV.
The fire occurred in the Mas du Taureau district, which has been undergoing urban regeneration having long been identified as one of several deprived areas in the Lyon suburbs.- EURO NEWS
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