Ten dead and 20 injured in fire

A fire at a nursing home in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina has killed 10 people and injured 20, local police said.

The fire started on Tuesday evening at the retirement home in the city of Tuzla, breaking out on the seventh floor shortly after 20:45 local time (19:45 GMT).

About 20 people were sent to a medical center for treatment, including firefighters, police officers, medical workers, employees and residents of the home, a police spokesman said.

Although the cause of the fire is not clear, Prime Minister Nermin Niksic called it a “disaster of enormous proportions”.

“According to preliminary information, 10 residents of the nursing home in Tuzla died in the fire,” the police spokesman said.

Officials said a full investigation will be conducted as soon as conditions are safe.

The chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s tripartite presidency, Željko Komšić, also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and the injured, national broadcaster BHRT reported.

A resident of the nursing home, Ruza Kadzic, said she lives 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 into the corridor. There are people lying on the upper floors,” she told BHRT.

Footage from the scene showed flames shooting from the upstairs windows of the nursing home.

According to a spokesman for the Tuzla University Clinical Center, several patients were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning, three of whom were in the intensive care unit, local media reported.