Five dead including children in horror apartment block fire after victims ‘became trapped in attic’ in Spain

FIVE young people have been killed in a horror blaze at an apartment block in Spain.

The fire reportedly broke out in an attic storage space of the five-storey residential block in the small town of Manlleu, about 50 miles north of Barcelona.

Firefighters raced to the property after alarms were raised on Monday shortly after 9pm local time.

The deceased are yet to be identified but reports said they include children and that none of the victims lived in the building.

Witnesses told local media that they were all under 18 and that one was as young as 12.

Four others who suffered burns were rushed to hospital.

A probe has been launched into how the fire broke out and why the victims were unable to escape the storage space.

A leading theory is that the blaze was sparked when a mattress caught fire, causing the victims to die from smoke inhalation, police sources told El Pais.

The grandfather of one of the dead told La Vanguardia that the space was used as a meeting point.

Neighbours said that the storage rooms had been abandoned for some time due to vandalism.

It was known that young people occasionally used them.

Four of the victims attended the local Antoni Pous high school, according to a statement released by the school.

“We are aware of the impact this has had on all of us,” it read.

“As an educational institution, we will continue to look after the well-being of our students.”

Three days of mourning have been declared by the town’s mayor, who said that support was also being offered to the bereaved.

Catalonia’s regional leader, Salvador Illa Roca, offered his deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims, writing on X that he was “deeply saddened by the death of five people”.

Three families have been relocated to a nearby hotel, while the other residents returned to the building, the Catalan Civil Protection wrote on social media.

It comes after eight people were killed after an explosion at a fireworks shop in China.

The deadly blast was sparked when a resident set off the pyrotechnics too close to the store on Sunday afternoon, according to the Donghai county government.

Millions around the world were reminded of fire safety after a deadly inferno at a Swiss bar killed 41 partygoers.

The New Year’s Eve tragedy sparked a major investigation which revealed that the nightclub had not undergone an annual safety inspection for five years.