At least 11 dead, dozens injured - many critically - in nursing home fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Photo: Profimedia/AFP/Ahmet Besic

The first videos from Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, taken at the scene of a nursing home fire that broke out last night, have appeared on social networks.

Recommended

At the same time, the Avaz website was reporting that the number of victims in this tragedy had increased to 10 (this has in the meanwhile been updated to 11), while at least 20 people have been injured. Emergency teams are constantly pulling out the victims, while there are fears the number of the dead could increase.

Ruza Gajic, an elderly woman who is a resident in this institution, said that she went to bed and then heard something starting to crackle. The woman, who was in considerable distress when she spoke to reporters, revealed that the fire destroyed the seventh floor where bed-ridden residents live.

Earlier last night the press in Bosnia and Herzegovina was reporting that at least five people were injured in the nursing home fire in Tuzla and that two had been placed in the intensive care unit.

The blaze has in the meantime been contained and extinguished, and now the exact number of the victims and the cause of the fire are being determined. Photojournalist Faruk Begtasagic said that he witnessed scenes that he will never forget.

"The fire literally engulfed the top floor of the Tuzla Pensioners' House. I have been a photojournalist for more than ten years, and tonight's event is the most distressing thing I have ever experienced," said Begtasagic.

A large number of emergency teams, firefighters and members of the Interior Ministry of the canton where Tuzla is located are at the scene.

(Telegraf.rs)