Lyon tower block fire kills ten, including five children
>
Tower block fire kills ten, including five children aged three to 15: Fire spreads through seven-story apartment building in France
- Ten dead, including five children, after fire in an apartment block near Lyon
- Fourteen injured, including two firefighters and one person in serious condition
- Blaze erupted just after 3 a.m. in a ground-floor apartment before spreading
Ten people have died, including five children, after a fire ripped through an apartment block in France in the early hours of this morning.
The fire broke out shortly after 03:00 local time in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon, in a ground-floor apartment in a block of flats and quickly spread upwards.
Fourteen people were injured in the fire, with four now in serious condition at hospital. Two firefighters were injured, but not seriously.
The deceased children are between the ages of three and 15, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who described the news as “shock.”
Darmanin said he was up all night giving President Emmanuel Macron updates on the situation and would visit the site of the fire today.
When asked about the cause of the fire, he told French news station BFMTV that “several hypotheses” are possible and an investigation is underway.
A witness told the news station: ‘We heard screaming, children screaming. When we opened the windows, we saw smoke coming out and suddenly we went downstairs.
“The neighbors came with a ladder, we were still able to evacuate the people who live on the first floor, on the garden side.”
Another said: ‘[I heard] a father who cried my children, save my children help my children”
In total, 165 firefighters and 70 vehicles were dispatched to fight the fire. So, the exact cause of the fire is currently unknown.
The building where the fire occurred has seven floors in total, plus a basement.
More to follow…