A seven-year-old child died, and several people were injured, Tuesday morning, January 30, following a fire in a seven-story building in a city in Marseille, firefighters said.
“There was a fire in a second floor apartment in an R 7 building [ground floor plus seven floors]; a seven-year-old child died” in Parc Kalliste, an impoverished housing estate in the northern districts of the city, said a spokesperson for the firefighters on site.
“There are other victims,” he added, without being able to give the precise toll at this stage, nor the causes of the fire. The police also confirmed the fire in this building.
Firefighters still deployed
On site, a black streak covers an entire part of the facade of this building, from the second to the seventh floor. Around 8:30 a.m. firefighters were still deployed, even though the fire was under control.
The Kalliste Park housing estate, built in the late 1960s, has been affected in recent years by problems of substandard housing, squatting and drug trafficking. With nine building blocks, including the one that was affected, it is located in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille, where 43% of the population lives below the poverty line.
