Nine dead in fire at German homeless centre
Afp, Halberstadt
Nine people died in a fire which swept through mobile homes at a centre for the homeless in eastern Germany on Friday, police said. Police said they were reducing the death toll from the figure of 10 they had given earlier. Five people were also treated in hospital after the blaze in the town of Halberstadt in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The fire broke out in the early hours of Friday in one of the mobile homes and gutted the four other homes at the site. An investigation was under way into the cause of the fire, but a police spokesman said there was nothing in the initial findings to suggest it was the result of arson. According to lists kept by the centre, 15 people had spent the night in the homes, but police said the real number may have been higher. Klaus Jeziorsky, the interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt, said the emergency services had been unable to save the victims. "Help came quickly, but unfortunately too late," he said.
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