4 killed as fire hits Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon

By Wasim Saif al-Din

BEIRUT

Four Syrian refugees were killed on Sunday when a fire tore through a refugee camp in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

A security source suggested that hot weather was likely the cause of the fire in the camp in Al-Mandara district.

"There are four fatalities in the fire, including a child," the source told Anadolu Agency.

He said many people suffered suffocation from the flames.

The source said Lebanese civil defense teams were trying to bring the fire under control.

Lebanon is hosting more than one million refugees from Syria, which fell into a devastating civil war in 2011 after the Bashar al-Assad regime violently cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Around 34 percent of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in the Bekaa Valley, according to UN figures.