Firefighters work on a damaged roof of an apartment
building following a fire that killed eight people in
Backnang southern Germany. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
A fire in a German apartment building has killed eight
people, including seven children, police say.
It is thought the victims of the fire, in the town of
Backnang in southern Germany, were a mother and her seven
children, BBC reports.
Four people were rescued from a balcony.
The building, a converted former leather factory, has a
German-Turkish cultural exchange association on the ground
floor, but there was no indication of arson or a "xenophobic"
attack, police said.
Investigators trying to determine the cause of the blaze are
focusing on an oven or heater on the first or second floors.
Some 13 people were registered as living in the building but
it is unclear how many were present at the time of the blaze.
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