5 youngsters killed in apartment fire near Barcelona

OVIEDO, Spain

Five young people were killed and four others injured in a fire at a five-story apartment building in the town of Manlleu near Barcelona in Spain, regional authorities said Tuesday.

The blaze broke out Monday night in a storage room on the building’s rooftop. Emergency services said the victims were unable to escape, though the cause remains under investigation.

“It appears that the victims were minors, and we are working with local schools,” said regional government delegate Elia Tortolero in an interview with Catalan broadcaster TV3. “One of them may have recently turned 18.”

Four of the five victims were students at the Antoni Pous i Argila secondary school in Manlleu, the school said in a statement.

Identification was ongoing on Tuesday morning, as some of the bodies were badly burned.

Catalan regional president Salvador Illa said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths and expressed condolences to the victims’ families and friends, while wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

Manlleu’s mayor, Arnau Rovira, declared three days of official mourning in the town of 21,000 residents, located roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Barcelona.

Three families were temporarily relocated to a hotel after the fire, while other residents were allowed to return to the building, civil protection officials said.