BRUSSELS, July 1 (Reuters) – Belgian firefighters are battling a blaze in an apartment block in the city of Antwerp that has killed several people, local police said on their website on Wednesday.
The local fire department received a call at 9:53 a.m. (0753 GMT) regarding a “raging fire” on the eighth floor of a 10-floor apartment block in the Linkeroever area of Antwerp, northern Belgium, police said.
The building, which has been evacuated, was home to more than 200 people, the police said, adding that several people were injured.
“At this moment, we cannot provide figures on that yet, because priorities currently lie elsewhere,” local police spokesperson Kim Bastiaens told reporters. “So we are primarily looking for victims right now.”
Several fire brigades from different districts are on site, as are ambulances and other emergency crews.
“We asked local residents affected by the smoke to close windows and doors and, if necessary, switch off ventilation,” police added.
“First the electricity went out, three minutes later we got a fire alarm. By then, there was already smoke in the hallways”, Geert Dewulf, who lives on the 10th floor, told Belgian broadcaster VRTNWS.
“We tried to get down on our own, but we couldn’t manage it anymore. We barricaded ourselves in our apartment and waited on the terrace. About 10 minutes later, the fire department came to rescue us from the terrace with their fire ladder.”
Linkeroever is a residential area off the city centre on the left bank of the Scheldt River.
Belgium has experienced a series of severe blazes in the past weeks, including one in a warehouse in Brussels.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Alex Richardson and Sharon Singleton)
