A fire burning at an orphanage in Algeria’s capital has killed at least 11 people including children, authorities said Thursday, amid a heatwave that has sparked hundreds of blazes in the country’s north.
Firefighters had been battling to extinguish the flames since before dawn in the Mohammadia suburb of Algiers.
“At around 3:00 am, we heard the fire engines arriving and the children screaming,” said Abdessalam Merrah, 41, who lives nearby.
“We helped as much as we could, but unfortunately we were told that 11 people had already died.”
An AFP journalist saw black stains around the building’s windows on Thursday morning. A witness said firefighters had used a chainsaw to remove metal bars from a window.
