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Ten people were killed in a fire in an apartment building near the French city of Lyon on Friday evening. Five children are among the dead, the prefecture said.

Four people were also seriously injured. Ten people were slightly injured, including two firefighters. The cause of the fire in the seven-storey apartment building in the suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin was initially unclear. 170 emergency services with 65 fire trucks fought the flames. The fire broke out around 3 p.m.

As a spokesman for the fire department told BFMTV, the fire broke out on the ground floor of the apartment building in the middle of a settlement and spread to the third floor. It was a complicated operation. The smoke made it difficult to evacuate residents. The fire has now been extinguished.

A local resident named Sarem told the broadcaster he was awakened by the fire. “Around 2 am, 2:25 am we heard screaming, children screaming. When we opened the windows, we saw smoke rising and falling,” he explains.

“Neighbors came with a ladder, but we were able to get some people who lived on the first floor on the garden side out towards the side entrance,” he says.

“Of course it is a shock, the balance is very difficult,” said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. The children who died were between the ages of 3 and 15. The number of victims is now known.

Darmanin was in touch with President Emmanuel Macron about the fire and wanted to review the situation with Housing Minister Olivier Klein on site. “The preliminary balance is staggering,” said Klein. The prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the mayor and the public prosecutor had already rushed to the scene of the accident. (aeg/sda/dpa)