At the least six individuals have died and several other others have been injured in a hearth that broke out in a 10-storey block of flats in Antwerp, Belgian police say.
Thick smoke was seen billowing from the eighth ground of the constructing within the Linkeroever district, after the hearth broke out simply earlier than 10:00 (08:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
Dramatic video confirmed a person clambering from his balcony by way of a neighbour’s window to flee the black smoke.
Police say greater than 200 individuals stay within the block and the hearth division has evacuated 80 flats within the constructing.
They are saying the hearth was attributable to a technical downside on the bottom ground.
“It has claimed a heavy toll right here at Linkeroever,” police spokeswoman Kim Bastiaens instructed Belgian public TV, including that a variety of individuals had suffered from severe and minor accidents.
Resident Geert Dewulf instructed VRT how thick smoke had stopped him getting out of his flat: “We barricaded ourselves into our flat and waited on the balcony. The fireplace brigade got here to rescue us from the balcony 10 minutes or so later with their ladder.”