Seventeen people died when a makeshift home for elderly people outside the Ukrainian capital Kiev caught fire in the early hours of Sunday, the latest tragedy to shake the conflict-riven country.
The fire tore through the two-storey shelter for the elderly which is in the village of Litochky, located some 50km north of Kiev.
“The bodies of 17 people have been found at the site of the fire,” the head of Ukraine’s state emergencies service, Mykola Chechotkin, said in comments released by his office.
“The fire broke out at a privately-owned house,” he told reporters, saying the shelter for the elderly had been set up in violation of existing legislation.
Citing preliminary information, the service said that 35 people were at the home when the fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday.
The bodies of 17 people have been found at the site of the fire. The fire broke out at a privately-owned house
Eighteen people have been rescued and five of them have been hospitalised, said the service, adding that the fire had been extinguished by Sunday morning. More than 150 people helped put out the fire.