Fire in a high-rise building in Lyon kills ten, including five children

A fire in a block of flats in France killed ten people in the early hours of the morning, including five children.

The fire broke out just after 3 a.m. local time in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon, in a ground floor apartment of a block of flats and quickly spread upwards.

Fourteen people were also injured in the inferno, four of whom are now in hospital in serious condition. Two firefighters were injured, but not seriously.

The children who died were between the ages of three and 15, said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who described the news as “shock”.

Mr Darmanin said he had been up all night, briefed President Emmanuel Macron on the situation and would visit the scene of the fire today.

When asked about the cause of the fire, he told French news channel BFMTV that “several hypotheses” were possible and an investigation was underway.

A witness told the news channel: “We heard screams, screams of children. When we opened the windows we saw smoke coming out and suddenly we went downstairs.

“Neighbors came with a ladder, we were still able to evacuate 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.

A total of around 165 firefighters and 70 vehicles were deployed to fight the fire. The exact cause of the fire, which took four hours to extinguish, is not known at this time.

The building where the fire happened has a total of seven floors plus a basement.

It is located in the Mas du Taureau district of Lyon, which was once considered one of the most deprived in the city but has recently been the subject of a redevelopment plan.

According to Le Monde, starting in the early 2000s, Lyon invested large sums of money to improve local shops and public transport links.