Child among five dead in southwest France fire

Bayonne: Five people including one child were killed when a fire tore through an apartment in the southwestern French city of Pau today, firefighters said.

Firemen evacuated nearly 30 residents from the four-storey building after being called at 6.40 am (0440 GMT). The bodies of five people, whose age and gender were not specified, were found in a home on the first floor.

A member of the emergency services said they were called by a person “who could not open the door of the apartment where the fire occurred and who was concerned because they saw blood running down the edge of one of the apartment’s windows”.

A couch was on fire when the firefighters arrived, the source added, and the blaze has been brought under control.