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Fire in an apartment block in Antwerp / At least 5 dead

2026-07-01 14:50:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Fire in an apartment block in Antwerp / At least 5 dead

At least five people have died and several others have been injured in a fire that broke out in a 10-story building in Antwerp, Belgian police say.

Thick smoke was seen rising from the eighth floor of the building in the Linkeroever neighborhood after the fire broke out shortly before 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

Police say more than 200 people live in the block and the bodies of a number of victims have already been found.

"There have been a large number of victims here in Linkeroever," police spokeswoman Kim Bastiaens told Belgian public television, adding that a number of people had suffered serious and minor injuries.

Resident Geert Dewulf told VRT how thick smoke had prevented him from leaving his apartment: "We barricaded ourselves in our apartment and waited on the balcony. The fire brigade came to rescue us from the balcony about 10 minutes later with their ladders."

Firefighters said they were going from apartment to apartment looking for possible victims, explaining that smoke had spread rapidly through the building, making it more difficult to evacuate people.

Another man said his in-laws, one of whom was former Antwerp mayor Bob Cools, had been successfully evacuated from the building and taken to hospital.

"We tried with all our might to save the cat, but unfortunately in the end we couldn't," he said.

Police said it was too early to identify the cause of the fire, although witnesses told the newspaper De Standardaard that work was being carried out on the roof.

Antwerp fire brigade spokeswoman Marie de Clercq said it was a complex fire and poor visibility and thick smoke in the building had made it difficult to extinguish.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever said his thoughts were with the victims and evacuated residents of the "terrible fire" in Linkeroever./CNA, translated by BBC





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