Eleven people were killed and 19 injured in a fire at a state-run child welfare home on the outskirts of Algiers early Thursday. The blaze occurred at an orphanage in the Mohammadia district, located in the eastern suburbs of the Algerian capital.
According to the civil protection agency, ten of the injured suffered burns of varying severity, and five people with disabilities were evacuated to safety. Firefighting operations continued as authorities worked to secure the area, though they have not yet identified the victims, disclosed their ages, or determined the cause of the fire.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune expressed his condolences during a trip to Berlin. The tragedy occurs as Algeria has been gripped by a recent heatwave, during which civil protection units have extinguished 913 fires nationwide since July 8.