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11 children were killed and 19 others injured in a fire at an orphanage near the Algerian capital on Thursday, authorities said.
Algeria’s Civil Protection agency said the fire broke out at around 3:30 am local time (4:30 am CEST) at a two-storey orphanage in Mohammedia, an eastern suburb of Algiers.
“We heard screams and voices coming from the burning orphanage, and then I saw that the flames had begun to engulf the place and the girls were inside. I ran out without a shirt on,” Yassin Ibrize, a nearby resident, told media.
Ibrize said he heard the commotion when the fire broke out and rushed to rescue children trapped inside.
Five children with reduced mobility were safely evacuated by rescue teams, while several of the injured were taken to a specialist burns hospital, said Lt. Col. Nassim Bernaoui, head of communications for the Civil Protection department.
Security officials guarded the entrance to the orphanage, whose window frames were left charred by the fire.
Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune expressed his condolences to those impacted by the fire which happened on Algeria’s National Children’s Day.
“It is with a heart resigned to the will of Allah that I learned of the death of children and the injuries suffered by other children of Algeria following the fire that broke out in a childcare institution,” said Tebboune, who is on an official visit to Berlin.