Ten dead and 20 injured in blaze

A fire that broke out in a nursing home in northeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina killed 10 people and injured 20, local police said.

The blaze started on Tuesday night at the retirement facility in the town of Tuzla, breaking out on the seventh floor shortly after 20:45 local time (19:45 GMT).

Around 20 people were sent to a medical centre for treatment, including firefighters, police officers, medical workers, employees, and residents of the home, a police spokesperson said.

While cause of the fire was not immediately clear, Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić called it “a disaster of enormous proportions”.

“According to preliminary information, 10 residents of the Tuzla retirement home lost their lives in the fire,” the police spokesperson said.

Officials said a full investigation would be conducted as soon as conditions were safe.

Chairman of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s tripartite presidency, Željko Komšić, also offered condolences to the victims’ families and the injured, national broadcaster BHRT reported.

A resident of the nursing home, Ruza Kajic, said she lived on the third floor of the building and was woken up after hearing a “cracking sound”.

“I looked out the window and saw burning material falling from above. I ran out into the hallway. On the upper floors, there are bed-ridden people,” she told BHRT.

Footage from the scene showed flames erupting from the windows of an upper floor of the nursing home.

According to a spokesperson for the Tuzla University clinical centre, several patients were being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning, three of whom were in intensive care, local media reported.