Eleven dead after fire at holiday home for disabled people in France

Eleven people died after a fire tore through a holiday home for disabled people in eastern France early on Wednesday, officials said.

The blaze broke out before 6.30am, as the holiday-goers and their carers were asleep in the two-storey building in the town of Wintzenheim, about 70km south of Strasbourg

The holiday home had been rented for the summer by two charities that take care of people with learning disabilities.

Nathalie Kielwasser, a local deputy prosecutor, said 11 people who were sleeping on the upper floor and in a mezzanine area were trapped by the fire, while five managed to escape. Some 12 people who were staying on the ground floor were able to evacuate, she said.

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“A few of the people who were (sleeping) on the first floor managed to escape, but most of those who got out were on the ground floor,” Lt Col Philippe Hauwiller, who headed the rescue operations, told reporters.

Investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances of the fire and whether the building met all the required security standards, Ms Kielwasser said.

Those killed were likely to have been aged between 25 and 50, Wintzenheim deputy mayor Daniel Leroy said.

French prime minister Elisabeth Borne visited the site of the fire, which destroyed about two-thirds of the building, while French president Emmanuel Macron described the incident as a “tragedy”. – Reuters/AP

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