PARIS: Ten people, including five children aged between three and 15, were killed in a fire early Friday morning at a residential building in Valais-en-Villan, near the French city of Lyon, Interior Minister Gerald Durman said.
Four more people were seriously injured in the fire, which started on the ground floor before spreading through the seven-story building, rescue officials told local media.
The fire, which started around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT), has been extinguished.
Footage on social media showed a huge dark cloud falling over the building earlier in the day.
#BREAKING #FRANCE
— loveworld (@LoveWorld_Peopl) December 16, 2022
🔴 FRANCE :#VIDEO TRAGEDY AT A 7-STOREY BUILDING IN VAULX-EN-VELIN NEAR LYON CITY! FATAL FIRE AT RESIDENTIAL BUILDING 🔥
At least 10 people, including 5 children,were killed, 14 injured.#BreakingNews #UltimaHora #Lyon #VaulxEnVelin #Fire #Incendio #Incendie pic.twitter.com/CM5i1YDZ8N
“I was woken up by screams,” Mohammed, a neighbor, told JEE News. “We wanted to help people but the smoke was too deep.”
Local media quoted other witnesses as saying that a woman had thrown her baby into the crowd, which managed to catch it. He then jumped out of the window to escape the fire and smoke and died.
The Leon prosecutor’s office opened an investigation to determine how the fire started, and said it could not rule out any hypothesis, including that someone set the fire intentionally.
Darman, who is headed to the scene Friday, said there are “several scenarios.”
Neighbors told JEE News that squatters – possibly drug dealers – lived on the ground floor of the building, which is located in a deprived suburb of Lyon where many people feel that the public authorities have abandoned them.
In February 2019, a fire in Paris killed 10 people and injured 96, the deadliest in the French capital since 2005.
In 2005, 24 people died in a fire in a residential house used by families of African descent. A woman was jailed for starting an argument by throwing clothes over candles.
