‘WOKEN UP BY THE SCREAMS’

Five Kids, Five Others Dead After Fire in French Apartment Building

Another four people were seriously injured in the blaze, which began on the ground floor.

Five children and five adults were killed in a fire that broke out in an apartment building in France the early hours of Friday, authorities said. The blaze in Vaulx-en-Velin near the southeastern city of Lyon also left four people seriously injured as flames erupted on the ground floor and tore through the seven-story building, according to local reports. The children killed were between the ages of 3 and 15, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. “I was woken up by the screams,” a neighbor, Mohamed, told Le Progres de Lyon newspaper. “We wanted to help people but the smoke was too thick.” Another witness quoted in local reports said one woman threw her child into a crowd outside the building before jumping out of the window herself, falling to her death. The fire, which began at around 3 a.m. local time, has since been extinguished. The Lyon prosecutor’s office is investigating how the tragedy started.