WINTZENHEIM: Eleven people were killed in eastern France on Wednesday when a fire tore through a holiday lodging being used by a group of adults with learning disabilities, officials said.
The fire, which came at the height of the nation's summer holiday season, is the deadliest in France since a blaze at a bar in the northern city of Rouen in 2016 killed 14 people. "The difficulty lies in accessing the affected levels, since there is a lot of rubble, a lot of collapsed parts and the stability of the floor is very uncertain," said Philippe Hauwiller, who was leading the fire brigade search operation.
"In Wintzenheim, the flames ravaged a lodging which accommodated people with disabilities and their companions. In the face of this tragedy, my thoughts go out to the victims, to the injured and to their loved ones," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X. "Unfortunately, there is little doubt: all these people were present in the lodging and could not get out," he told reporters.The missing and confirmed dead included 10 people with light learning difficulties and one supervisor, he said.
The firefighters were dousing the scene of the disaster with the help of fire hoses, an AFP photographer said.