Fourteen people were killed and eight injured when a fire broke out at a workshop for disabled people in Germany’s Black Forest region.
Scores had to be rescued from the building as it quickly filled with smoke.
More than 100 firefighters were deployed to battle the blaze yesterday at the complex in Titisee-Neustadt.
Ambulances raced to the scene as smoke poured from the windows of the modern, three-storey centre in one of the country’s deadliest blazes in recent memory.
German chancellor Angela Merkel was “shocked” about the loss of so many lives, her spokesman said on Twitter.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
The centre usually has about 120 people at any one time, said Mirko Steffl, a police spokesman in the nearby city of Freiburg.
The centre employs people with mental or physical disabilities in a variety of jobs. It is run by the Catholic Church’s Caritas organisation. – (Guardian service)