Police said some 50 people had to be resettled in another shelter..PHOTO: REUTERS
BERLIN: A fire broke out in a refugee shelter in Germany overnight injuring 37 people, mainly due to smoke inhalation, police said Sunday as they searched for the cause.
Emergency services took 10 children and four adults to hospital after the blaze started around 2:30am in the basement of the five-storey building in the northwestern city of Bremen.
The fire brigade responded with 70 personnel and 27 vehicles, using ladders to rescue some inhabitants from the smoke-filled building through windows.
Police said some 50 people had to be resettled in another shelter.
The fire was thought to have started in a garbage bin in the cellar, for as yet unknown reasons, they said in a statement. Officers were interviewing witnesses.
Explosions hit football team bus in Germany, one injured
Germany, the EU's most populous country, has taken in over one million asylum seekers since 2015, about half of them from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The influx has sparked both a large wave of volunteerism and an ugly anti-foreigner backlash that has seen a spate of hate crimes targeting migrants and refugees.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ